Blank Check with Griffin & David - The Big Lebowski with Seth Rogen

Episode Date: August 24, 2025

It’s the episode you’ve all been waiting for - Seth Rogen joins us to talk about the Coens’ 1998 stoner classic The Big Lebowski. It should come as no surprise that Lebowski has loomed large over Seth’s work as a writer and director, and we’re going in depth on the influence and lasting impact of The Dude. Make yourself a White Russian (but maybe take a Lactaid first), turn off The Eagles, and settle in for a hilarious three hours of film analysis and Hollywood anecdotes. Oh, and if you were wondering - in this episode, someone is made to answer for his crimes against Sammy Fabelman. Finally. Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your  pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Blank Jack with Griffin and David Black Jack with Griffin and David Don't know what to say but you expect All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blackjack I'm talking about the haze here Sometimes there's a man Well, let me take this again, sorry This is important

Enough, Griffin. This is important. I'm talking about the Haas here. Sometimes there's a podcast. Well, it's the podcast for its time and place. It fits right in there. And that's the Haas in New Jersey. And even if it's a sloppy podcast,

and Blank Check was most certainly that, quite possibly the sloppiest in New York City, which would place it high in the running for laziest worldwide, sloppiest worldwide. But sometimes there's a podcast. Sometimes there's a podcast I lost my train of thought there But hell

I don't introduce it enough I really could not get it No, sorry I was trying I'd like you to keep trying For the next three hours I could not get there Was he always

Like in Roadhouse does he talk like that Like was he always at that register Basically his whole life I would say this movie Is the moment that the Sam Elliott thing is kind of heightened in a way that SNL did for Christopher Walken. Do you know what I'm saying?

I was also watching it at this time being like, I think I'm Sam Elliott's age. Fuck, right. He's not that old in this movie. Okay, let's look it up. Let's do the math. We've got to do the math list immediately. You know what?

He's 80 years old now. So he would have been, yeah, so he would have been like 44, no, 54. This movie's 98. Oh, fuck. I'm so. bad at math. You're not in your 50s. No, I'm 43. You're in the clear that.

Yeah. I think you have some... He was 54. Okay. You got pretty close. You got a decade before you... That's closer than you'd like this thing. You think you ever do a Western? Like a fucking... I'd love to do a Western. Yeah. That'd be cool. Do you know what I'm saying, though? Like, he always talked like this. And then I think this movie memeified him in a way

that like S&L did with Christopher Walkin, where it's like... Well, also kind of Jeff Bridges did to him 100%. Yeah. We're using your voice. is like a comedic instrument now. And then after that, that becomes the thing that people impersonate and then people hire him to do the version of the thing. Yeah, you start to do it.

No, but I mean, he does it. The odor of the voice himself starts to do. Yes, absolutely. And then the thing in Star is born is Bradley Cooper saying to him like, I stole your voice. Yeah. In the movie, he says it.

Right. And I can do that better. You can do a, I got to watch that again. I got to Star is born. I love that movie. You got to get back in the shallows. Oh, yeah, exactly. Hi.

Hi. He gets the and in this movie. Does he? Yes. Okay. It's a perfect and. And Sam Elliott. And Sam Elliott as the stranger.

The stranger, which is a cool name. Have you ever gotten an and as? You must have, right? Maybe. Maybe I've gotten an ant. Have you ever been, like, angrily on the phone that feels like a studio episode being like, if I don't get the fucking and as. Morr's one of those things that like my,

My agent feel very strongly about it. I was like, I could give a fucking shit. I do not want with. It won't be with. I just know when we did Ninja Turtles recently, we had to give Paul Rudd like an introduced, Paul Rudd wanted an introducing Paul Rudd. That was good for Mondo Gecko.

Was it interesting as Mondo? I think it was an introducing Paul Rud as Mondo. That's what I like about the and as and is my favorite form of billing. What I like about it is it's not just the honorific of the end, right? You're the most important person who wasn't. going to enter the top two or three, but also that it's like, and we're telling you this character is important, either that it's like, for the first time Paul Rudd is a saying, the legendary role of Mondo Geckinel, right, as if it's Liartis, or the movie's just saying

to you, the stranger is going to matter. You don't know the stranger yet. He's going to matter. Keep your eye out for the stranger. Yeah. And his name is the stranger, which also just instantly makes the movie cool. Because you're like, oh, there's a character called the stranger. And he's already cool. That's talking. You've already heard him. He's been talking for minutes. It's already been him. He's failing to land the plane. Right.

He's doing kind of a bad job at his one job. He's kind of doing a Blanktrak podcast intro. Sorry, you were about to say. You know, Jason Reitman used to do those live reads. Yeah, I did one. I did the one for the big Lovsky. You did the Ghostbusters. Oh, yeah.

I did the Lobowski. And Sam Elliott came and did his role. Because who could replace him? It's one of those. So who were you? I was the dude. You were the dude. You were the dude.

Who was Walter? Walter was, I think, Rain Wilson. Interesting. Yeah, I could see that. He can do the acro. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But you're an interesting place

because you could, I think. I think as I was doing it, I was like, I would have been better suited to me. I didn't either. It's one degree in either direction. Well, as I was doing it, I was like, the dude is pretty, like pretty aggressive throughout the movie.

Like, he is, he's not that mellow. It's part of the magic trick of this movie is that we talk a lot about the issue sometimes of making a movie. where a character doesn't want to be in the movie that is frustrating for the audience where the character is like stopping the movie from happening.

Not trying to perpetuate the plot of the movie itself, yeah. Yes, and is actively pushing back against it. And this is a movie where that's the whole motor of the thing. And it's just him being annoyed that the movie keeps showing up at his doorstep. And yet he's towing this very specific line. Yeah. Of he plays his anger of just like, well, that's inconvenient. Well, he makes one choice, which is he goes to the,

LeBoskey to get his rug back. If he hadn't done that, the whole movie wouldn't happen. And he's incensed. So as passive as a character and as like a long for the ride as he is, he does active, he starts the movie actively. Like he could have just been like, and it's almost more in character in some ways for him to have been like, these guys pissed on my rug, it was a misunderstanding, whatever, who cares?

But instead he's like incensed about it. And he wants a new rug. Well, it's, right. It's an injustice. It's perfect character. that he can get punched in the face and be like, oh, come on, man. He doesn't care about that.

But the rug is like, I must do something about it. It tied the room together. One of the many insufferable quotes. The people will never stop saying from this film. I myself too. It is a weird case. I will admit this.

I'm a big Cohen Brothers fan. Is this not a movie for you? It's not one of my like, like you haven't seen this 400 times. Right. And I have zero issues with it. And I think it's like another Cohen Brothers masterpiece, I do feel like there is

5% of the world's most annoying people getting to me about this movie. I don't actually hold it against the film. And I feel like on this rewatch, I did the kind of like complete brain wipe, just watch this as a film and ignore it. But it is funny to watch it and be like,

this movie has become the Wizard of Oz. And that you can literally take any line or image or character name. And like every element of this now is well-established cultural shorthand. What's our podcast called? Our podcast is called Blank Check with Griffin and David.

I'm Griffin. I'm David. Sometimes there's a man and sometimes there's a man. It's a podcast about filmographies, directors who have massive success early on in their careers and are given a series of blank checks to make whatever crazy passion projects they want. Sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce baby. This is a mini series on the films of Joel and Ethan Cohen, together and separately.

Today we were talking about the Big Lobowski, which I'm struggling to think. think if there's another example of this, which is a blank check cash-in off at the time their biggest success. Sure. That is seen as an absolute bounce and then retroactively has become unquestionably their biggest film.

Yeah. To the point that if you even suggest it isn't you're a liar. You are. You're just like that is the fucking liar. It's just weird that you're like if you sit down and think about the Cohen's first sec, you're like, yeah, you know, the crime movies He's fucking raising Arizona, Fargo, no country. You can think about that for a day.

And then you'd be like, ah, shit, they made the big Lebowski on top of all that. Like, they created a whole other universe of, like, fans and excitement. It is just the movie that everyone knows. We have, we have this rep. You have the dude. I'm looking at it right now. We have the dude.

I'm glad you noticed because that was a new addition to the menagerie. I recently purchased a dude. Wait, where's the dude? I got a little dude. Oh, there he is. Oh, there he's fucking, like a foot tall. What the hell is that thing? You know, toys come in different scales.

You collect a bit, right? I do have a lot of stuff. Yes, yes, very much so. I was going to ask how articulatable he is, which is a real toy term. Great. And boy, am I thrilled. And I'll tell you what I'm most excited about now. Not as many points of articulation as you would hope.

I am excited by the fact that for the first time this conversation is not causing David to hit his head on the table. He can't shut it down when you're asking questions. When I bring it up, he goes like, oh, fuck, no, I got to get out of you. You know, my daughter took a toy from this. this shelf. I've been mean to ask you. What did she take? Do you know? Have you noticed? I was wondering, because you got 4,000 toys on this show. I'm aware, but I keep a Rolodex and I've not been able to. He took, I believe it is Anakin Skywalker's force ghost in tiny, cool. Great. I thought you were going to say forced skin. Yeah, she took his horse skin. People forget.

His Wadom. Anast Kanakly uncircumcised and chill attack of the clone. And George Succas made a limited run of the collectible. Right. Yeah, yeah. He was born with a Wado knows because downstairs because Wado's his father. And then as part of the Jedi ritual, they... What's funny, Griffin, is the only other time I met you in person, I think, is you were dressed as you were Wado. He was. There's our Wado.

We had been messaging and then you very kindly did the George Lucas talk show and you came backstage and I was already in the costume. You were already Wado. And I went, this is a very embarrassing way to me. I've had that. I used to present at the, they used to do, I don't even know, do they still do the MTV movie Awards and stuff like that. Do they right now the MTV, movie and TV and TV and text awards?

Oh, fine. Five things. Movie and meme awards. Most memeable meme. And I've, I used to do the, like, it's so hard to get to laugh at those things I would do the dumbest shit ever. And, and I, so I remember one year, like, my bit was that, like, I was all, like, roided out or something. And so I was in this, like, insane giant muscle body suit. And I remember meeting for the.

first time so many people I was a big, I met like, Hendrick Lamar for the first time, and all these people as I'm in, is this you? Yes, this giant, stupid, muscle body stick. And I've tried as we know, I'm like, hey, big fan, so nice to meet you. This is part of a bit. I'm doing a bit. I haven't done it yet. It's coming

up. Please. You have two MTV Movie Awards. Did you know that? No. You have one for Best Musical Sequence and This is the End. Yeah. And then one for best WTF moment in Neighbors. I don't know what that was. I don't know what that was. David?

I think physically one of them is in our office. I don't know. I don't know what happened. You and Rose won it. So maybe Rose took it. There's the moment though. Wasn't it me milking her maybe? Possibly.

That's a moment. If I had to choose a moment. That's a hashtag WTF moment. I just love looking at the MTV because it's like the Oscars. It's like, yeah, we've handed out these awards for a hundred year. And the MTV was like, I don't know. Every couple years we're like, should we do WTF moments? Yeah.

Like, forget it. They try that anymore. They're like, gross. Now they don't do best kiss. Now it's back. Yeah. Oh, fuck. What was I going to say?

Well, who's our guests? Well, I got a lot of things to say here. We've already established a lot on the table. Our guest today is Seth Rogen. Hey, Seth. And I'm going to leave with the credits. I was curious. There's an account that does the cataloging of actors and how many times we've covered them on this podcast, updated week to week.

And I was curious what the Seth Rogen blank check cannon is. I bet. Like, too. Which I'm going to list of your credits, okay? My assumption is Steve. Jobs and the Fablemans. Correct. And that's it.

Can you name the third one? There's a Donny, not Donny Darko. No, not yet, although he'd love to do him. Is it an animated movie? It is. It is. It is. It is.

Sometimes people pretend it isn't. Really? That's my hint. And it was not covered as part of covering that director. We weirdly did it as a one-off. You're talking about the Lion King? I'm talking about the Lion King. Oh, the first one?

The Pabro. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Favro. Art King. Yeah. I'm in that as well. Yeah, I forgot.

I forgot you're in Donnie Dart. You're just mean at a bus stop in Duny Dark. I'm in a few scenes. I killed Jenem alone. You're the murderer. And she gets it by a car. Wow. Oh, Jesus.

But then we also, we also on this podcast. Movies are, you should know it's not real. David, you of all people. Why did you do that to Stephen Spielberg? You guys, you've done so many episodes. How does it feel that you are the architect of Stephen Spielberg's, like, artistic career? and that you, you know, fell in love with his mom. Yeah.

Which made him make movies. According to that movie, he restored him into it before that. But it seemed like he had inclinations to make. He was filming the train before. He was filming that. You're right. You're right. You're right.

But do you watch E.T. and go, like, thank God. Thank God I did that. I did that. Yeah. If it wasn't for me. Yeah. Making those choices. Yeah.

None of this would have happened. Yeah, no. It's weird that that happened. It is. Does Spielberg say that? For that role, he's like, this one's a weird one. Well, you know what's funny is I actually feel like as we were filming, I feel like he sort of had a contextualized one way.

And then as we were filming it and like bringing it to life, he sort of started to maybe at times see how weird it was. Like, like, I think it said he's like, yeah, we were all on a camping trip. And my mom and this guy are sort of like canoodling a little bit, which I think like in your head is one way. And then I think like as we were actually recreating it. There was moments where I felt, maybe I was projecting it,

but I felt him feeling like, oh, this is maybe more fucked up. It almost became like a shutter island as he was actually forcing people to act. And I think, like, changed the tone, I think to his credit, he like would go with it and like kind of changed the tone of the scene a little bit from being, like, I feel like in the script, it was almost like cutesy. And then when brought to life, it was much more tragic. It's why not, you know, to be serious, it's why that movie rocks. Because it is dark, but not in like an over-the-top way.

Yeah, it's even like the music and stuff, like, again, it's one of those things where, I mean, it's, it's a rare gift to have, like, John Williams, like, score a movie. Score your face. You're a score your face. And, and, yeah, just to see, like, oh, like, even in my head, I was like, oh, these scenes are so much more sad now with all this stuff. But, yeah, it's weird. The whole thing is weird. I sat next to John Williams at the Oscars that year. I talked to him for, like, five hours straight.

Really? That's incredibly unbelievable. Yeah. Completely rocked. Yeah. So cool. One of the greatest, like, of the Oscars. that whole failman's experience.

Like that was honestly one of the coolest things was just like, because I didn't mean him throughout the whole process, really. And then I was like, I show up at the Oscars. They're like, oh, you're sitting next to John Williams. And it was incredible. Does he get really annoyed when he loses? God fucking damn it. No, he genuinely just seemed out.

He got it in all quiet on the western front. He seems like he. Yeah. He kept punching the scene in front of him that Donnie Yen was sitting in. Chill out, man. No. And it's sort of connected to this is I actually talked to him a lot

about one of my other favorite sort of hapless detective films The Long Goodbye. Amazing score. And does one of my favorite, it does something, it's funny, because I've always loved how that movie takes

the, they wrote a song, The Long Goodbye, and they use it in different genres in different times of the film. And like, when they're in Mexico, there's like a funeral procession playing like sort of like a sad,

Spanish version of a, there's like that sort of a muzac. Yeah. Like when they're in the elevator, when they're the grocery store, there's like the music version of it and all this stuff. And I asked, I was like, how did you guys think of that? And he was like, it was just an idea that me and Robert Otwin came up with. And he's like, what's funny is we thought everyone was going to start doing it.

Like, we were like, this is going to be a thing. Like, this is going to, like, create a, like, musical revolution in movie where people, like, realize you can start to do this. And then he's like, I think nobody ever did it ever again. But it's great. It's probably a pain in the ass. Yeah, I don't know, yeah. I feel like I was trying to. to do a letterbox list once

of movies where the same song is played multiple times and the context changes which is a little different than the song changes but both exist. But it's still cool. Yeah. Something about Mary almost does a version of that. Yeah, with those guys. Yeah. In the tree, the

the singing guys. They kind of do. They're kind of different songs, but they're kind of all evolutions of the same song. I have not seen that movie in like 25 years. Do you know that movie is a 10 out of 10 knockout mass? I remember. I love them. Yeah. Yeah. That's movies one of like the most like revelatory experiences I had in a movie theater in my life. The mind blow.

I feel like that's right before like you're in Hollywood, right? Like that's like like a 98. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And we were already like, I think writing super bad, but I remember seeing that and being like, oh my God. This is allowed.

You can, we can push this so much further than I thought maybe we could. It's all that shot where you see his dick and balls. It's insane. Like that to me is like, it's like there's the fucking like, Obelisk in 2001. And like, you know, there's like, to me, that is like deserves like, as far as comedy goes, that is like

one of the most like boundary pushing iconic shots. And then they do it five minutes. Yeah. And they're like, yeah. And the joke is so clearly and it's so smart. And I love jokes that like play off of your expectations as an audience member, which is like, oh, the joke is that you're not going to see it. And that they keep describing this horrific thing. Right. And they have all And everyone's describing it and everyone's dead.

They're also describing it a way that sounds impossible where you're like they couldn't physically tell me. They're describing, oh, the fring's above the beat. The zippers all the way down. And it keeps getting grosser and grosser. And then they show it. And somehow with that like one brief image, you see everything that everyone's been talking about. It's like Chiodo Brothers like puppet insert shot.

But then the thing that's so revolutionary is from that moment on in the movie, you're like, they could show me anything. They could do anything. All bets are off. This movie would be shown. in any sliding scale of reality. It's like in a horror movie when you do something really scary up front and you're like, oh, the stakes are sad.

Yeah, you're like anyone could die at any minute. And in that movie, it's... It's funny that we're talking about that movie because that movie came out the same year as the Big Lobowski. It came out... The comedy hit of 1998. Right.

It came out probably like... Bigelbosky was March, so it came out in like summer. It's July. It's July. But it's funny how, right. At the time, everyone was like Big Lobowski. Everyone was like, no.

The next several years of comedy, are people chasing Mary. That was the kind of like, in a way that I'd say, 40-year-old Virgin was one of those. Hangover was one of those where it's just like, this is now the thing

that everyone's chasing. This movie has come out, feels like it's like a shot from the dark, and now everyone wants to follow this trend. I, that Mary was so revelatory for me. I went home and like young Sammy Fablman with the train set. Recreated the nuts shot.

Experimenting. With the zipper in the mirror, shipping your nuts up. Yeah. Almost got it. To answer your question, question. The Big Lebowski action figure.

Oh, yeah, sure. There you go. Oh, Ben put it down on the desk. So it was, this is from 2008. It's from the 10th anniversary of the movie, which I really feel like was when the big Labowski quotes had become mainstream and Universal was like, we can put this on anything. We can sell everything with Lobowski quotes on it. It's meant to sort of be a riff on like a fucking kid robot urban vinyl figure.

Yeah, it looks a little hip. So that's why it's limited articulation and kind of caricatricor. It's almost more of a statue. But I argue it's in a little bit of a weird middle ground. It's a little too solid. Yeah. It doesn't have the rhodo-vino construction. It's not quite artful enough to be like an art piece, but it's not articulatable enough to be a fun toy.

It's just the arms in the head. Yeah. David, you're such a Philistine. You don't know what you're talking about. I know I don't. I just won a best offer for the Walter, which I think is a little better. Okay. Just to complete my thing.

It is good. You have all these. Can you describe to me what the Anakin Ghost is? from... They're called Disney Dorables. Disney Dorables. They're like an inch tall. They're like an inch tall.

They're like Adorables. But you call them Dorables because they come in a little cardboard blind box where it's like... You mostly have living... Star Wars characters up there. But you have three ghosts. You have Yoda, right?

It was a special set. It came in a tin. Of the dead. That looks like... Yes. It's all the ghosts. And she took him and she's like, who's this?

And I'm like, I don't fucking know. I don't know. Well, that's the thing. It looks... So I said it was Obi-Wy-1. because I was just kind of thrown It's not Jake Lloyd. It's not Jake Lloyd.

It'd be weird if he died and it'd be weird if he died and they'd come back as a ghost as Jake Lloyd he fucking dies in the pod. If George Lucas had gone fucking glorious bastards on episode one in the movie ends with Anakin being murdered and you're like, what are these movies?

That would have been cool. So she calls it Obi-1. It's a prized toy for her. It's like a big deal for her. She knows who Obi-Won is. Well, she knows that thing's called Obi-1, which of course he's not actually called Obi-1, but whatever.

I'm willing to lift that slide that slide. is at least a force ghost. Yeah. And I think it's cute that she says Obi-1. I do think if he was going to take one, that's probably the one I least felt a need to keep. It's just funny that she was confronted with this wall of toys and she was like,

but also Erlickson was taking all of those. I think we were playing with them. Were they possibly? Upstairs. What is the Total Recall thing? That was the DVD release of Total Recall. Oh, is that the DVD itself? It was packaged in like Mars.

In like Mars? Oh, yeah. It was when Lionsgate was like, we're going to. really fucking experiment with the form, and I think the big thing was they paid Schwarzenegger like half a million dollars to do the commentary. Oh, that's funny. Is it amazing? It's good. I love that. I love that movie. Schwarzenegger's just smoking a cigar and Verhoeven's making a bunch of sexist comments. Sounds amazing to me. It's incredible, but it felt like, is this going to be the new thing of like big salaries for commentaries? Right, right, right.

And then Lionsgate was like, everything's packaged weird. Basic Instant came with a pen that look like the ice pick. Really? Yeah. Yes. I remember that. This is the thing, speaking of collecting, I think about this a lot. And my aspirations to someday be someone who may be married.

I remember an interview with you years ago where you said the rule I have with my wife is if it's a character, she doesn't know, it can't be in the living room. Yeah. There had to be like a communal, like I have an office where, like I had a big collection of this stuff. Memorabilia. Yeah, sure. Collectibles.

Yes. And, yeah, once we moved in together, what could be in, like, communal spaces became a real topic of conversation. Right. Like, the Hulk can be there, but Doc Sampson can. Yes, exactly. But then it eventually just sort of segueed into us, like, both sort of buying, like, things together, which actually became much nicer. We started collecting, like, art. We would go to, like, little art shows and buy things together, which, because, which was nice.

So, like, we found a way to bond over our collecting. What a sweet story. Yes, it's lovely. Like the Fableman. Yes. So your friend, David Cromholtz. Yes. Was on this podcast.

It was a friend of the show. I love, a wonder on the Seven of a Wolf. Centim of a Woman, that was amazing. One of our most normal episodes, we are eager to have them on again. Kremoltz keeps texting me, I can't believe you guys haven't done Wolfgang Peterson yet. We should do Wolfgang. How have you done Wolfgang? I got to do Wolfgang.

Who does he? What's his Wolfgang? Any Wolfgang. Hey, Walker, all right. It started with, I missed Wolfgang, right? you guys must have done in years ago. Out of the blue, I got that text. You must have done Wolfgang.

We haven't. And now every couple of months it's anger right. You still haven't done Wolfgang? He can do a enemy's mine. Ronan Wolfgang Peters? No, that's John Frankenheimer? I get Wolfgang Peterson and John Frankenheimer. And those are both good guys.

Doss Boot? Das Boot is Wolfgang. That's his like, you know, what are the big of Mary? Perfect Storm? Perfect Storm. Air Force One. In a fire.

In the line of fire. He actually, he was on fire. He does kind of ride. Krumholtz booked for every Wolfgang episode. And of course, he did never-ending story.

If we did him, the never-ending story, we could do like a 10-hour episode. You know, you always complain that these episodes are too short? Oh, yeah, that's me.

I always complaining. But then you message shortly after that and say, hey, Kremholtz got me into the podcast I've been listening. Yes. And then we've been messaging

back and forth since then. You did George Lucas very kindly. we've been trying to find the right thing to do. You did a letterbox top four on some red carpet. Some red carpet. And you named this. Yeah.

Alongside Clueless, which we have just covered. Yeah, which was a great episode as well. Thank you. And I'm trying to remember what your other two were. I don't even remember. I kind of threw them out. I usually say the last detail because it like offsets the like lack of fanciness in my other choices.

And I often say Terminator 2, which might have been the other one. I mean, hey. Might have been the other one. Last detail of Terminator 2. That's a killer four. That's a killer four. That's a pretty good four. I'm really a child of the 90s.

Chase had really good. Now I'm watching the entire studio cast. Oh, and Catherine had really good. Catherine Hawn also is really good. Yeah, I watched those. Last detail is kind of feels like a big Cohen inspiration in a lot of things. I mean, I think if you look at, I mean, the last detail and the Big Lobowski and Super Bad and Pineapple Express also, there's a lot of similarities in those movies.

And it's like not a coincidence. It's like we were really inspired. And we love the Big Lebowski. Did you guys see it like in theaters? I definitely did not. I was remembering. So I was, I was 12 when this came out.

How old? You're a couple years old. I was 16. So you must have seen in theaters? No. What's funny is I didn't. Like it looked. It's because the whole marketing campaign for it.

Like that was fucking crazy. Right. And they really leaned into like the fantasy sequences. The fantasy and the bowling. A lot of the marketing was about the bowling. and it was like the women with the bowling things on their heads. You were like, is this pink meter? And the poster, the poster was crazy.

It gives you nothing. I actually remember going to school and some of my friends having seen it. And they're like, it's a stoner. He's both weak. You were like, it's a stoner detective movie. And I was like, what? And they were like, it's like a stoner movie. And he's like caught in this big funny thing.

And there's these people. They're cutting toes off. and and I was like, oh, this sounds funny. And then I remember watching and being like, oh, this was like the worst marketed movie in the entire fucking world, basically. And yet, you're like, how do you market it? This was the British poster, which is even worse.

It's just the two of that. With a toe. With a toe. With the toe. They really tried to push like a girl's toe gets cut off. They didn't know what to do with this. Which, like, why would anyone? And it was rated 18 in Britain because John Goodman

bites someone's ear off. That's crazy. The British rating board. Like, remember Mike Tyson. I was going to say, we don't want to be biting ears. It was a sensitive time for ear biting. The children are going to be biting ears in playgrounds. It's like Child's Play 2.

Right. That's really. So I couldn't see it in theaters. And so I, too, probably discovered it as Seth did, like on video, like a tour years, you know, your... I thought right when it come out of it. Right. I remember, like, like, by the time it was like on video, it had gotten out that it was like

actually a cool movie, basically. I probably saw it around 2003. Which I feel like that. That is when its cult status had been completely cemented. Like, it became a college thing. And by the time I got to college in, like, 2004, it was a... I moved to L.A. in 1999, and I remember going and hanging out at that bowling alley a lot because... Is it still there?

No, it was knocked down, but they... All those, like, neon stars were, like, made for the movie, but they left them there. That's cool. I love that. Hollywood Star Lane's. Yeah, Hollywood Star-Lanes. And so, and they would have like, like, you know, like, buck-99 white Russians, basically.

And which is not a drink you should drink a lot of by any stretch of the imagination because it's mostly milk, milk and vodka. And so, but we would go there all the time. And we would go bowling and we would drink white Russians. And we just like, because we love the movie. Like, so, like, there was a group of us who were fans at that time. And enough people were fans at that time that there was like a little subculture people

that like would go to that bowling alley. But I was going to say at that moment in time that's almost more like the Popeye Malta village of like what are we going to tear this down? Yeah, we got to leave it. Let's just mark it to the people who did like this weird movie. Yeah. Versus if that place had stayed open another five years.

Oh, it would have become like a landmark status. Yes, it would have been insane. But it was literally knocked down by the time the movie had like a big. Yeah, because like it wasn't hard to get a lay there. Like it wasn't a big line. huge. It's like 32 lanes. I want to go to Jackie Trehorn's house, which has been in a ton of movies. Oh, I've been there.

I was going to ask if you've been. Does someone own that? There you go. It's called the Sheetskgolds. By John Lottner, who designed all the, all the homes in the studio we film in are John Lott. I was going to say, it feels like where you live. Exactly. They're the same architect. But it's one of the most, this is one of the most famous

houses in L.A., and it's not on the beach in Malibu as they make it appear to be. Right. They walk from the beach to Yeah, which is pretty clever how they shoot it. But it's actually overlooking the city. It has an amazing view and it's, uh, yes, this incredible concrete house with this very kind of famous

like honeycomb concrete roof and these like built in. Yeah, it's got these, this roof with these little sky like these tiny. Yeah, yeah. It's an amazing house. It's really, really cool. And this guy the guy who built it, who commissioned it from John Lawtoner still lives in it. And he's wild. Okay. It's like a kooky old dude

who like mostly rents out the house for like movies and photo shoots and stuff like that. I'm glad it isn't like Connor McGregor owns it now. No, exactly. Yeah. The milk boys.

It's not. No, it's the actual Goldstein, the guy. Yes, James Goldstein. He's like a guy who goes to Laker games. He's a rich guy.

I've filmed there. I've done photo shoots there. I've done, but yeah, I filmed there like a whole couple days with Will Ferrell on something once. And like, it was amazing like it's one of the fun parts about shooting like you get to sort of like

just be in these houses all yeah so like you sort of get to like experience what it's like to really occupy time in these amazing and yeah that house is truly amazing but it's to me most famous from this movie it's in a lot of other movies i think it's in charlie's i was gonna say in charlie's angels i think they they live in it is it sam rothball's house maybe no he lives in the chemosphere which is another john lotner house which is uh it looks it's like a house standing on a single. Oh, yeah.

The one that's, yes. Which is, it's Troy McClure's house in the Simpsies.

Yes. There's another movie, uh, maybe it's a diploma movie. I'm looking it up. Yes,

it's body double. It's also shot in the, in the chemispere house. Yeah. Correct. Oh my God. It's all good houses. All good houses.

And wait, so where's your studio house? What's that one called? That one, um, is on, uh, Jeremy Scott, the guy who owned,

uh, Moschino the fashion line now lives in it. It's, It's in the hills, right? And silver, the one we shot the Sarah Polly episode in is called the Silver Top House. And the one that Catherine O'Hara lives in is another... With the pool, yeah, is another Wattner house. They're all amazing houses.

And they're very cinematic. And that's why we wanted to film in them, because they are, like, in a lot of movies that we thought it'd be, like, cinematically kind of full circle. Also, the best thing about the series that looks good. I mean, like, you're built around. and it's brilliant. Those are amazing spaces to explore in real time. Oh, fully.

Yeah. And they're designed in such a way that they're meant to be walked through. And so, like, they really have this, like, compression and expansion and, and, like, unconventional layouts that sort of are fun to unravel and sort of as you turn a corner, reveals a whole new space. And, yeah, we really, like, piggybacked off of the design of these houses. I will say this. I have talked, in the 10 years of doing this podcast, a decade of dreams.

I've talked greasy about the city of Los Angeles. You mean you should talk to L.A. Sure. When I go to L.A., people are like, we know you hate it here. And I'm like, oh, God, I built that reputation for myself. A lot of that is very defensively as a young man trying to work in the entertainment industry being like, I want to stay in New York. A lot of people have that. For years.

I've seen that. I've seen it a lot of that. Right. I feel like this is dissipated now. See it to get ground down. Post pandemic. But I had like 10 years of people being like, are you not serious about your career? and I was just like, I kind of still want to live here.

You can totally live in New York and have a... Yes, I, that was my... As you've proven, is the employed, housed man? Yes. He's housed. But like, I love... I am housed. I love the studio. I think it's an incredible show.

It's like a beautiful panic attack. When I watch it, I'm like, these are all the reasons I don't want to live in L.A. The way the show feels, it's this... These are all my anxieties. When I watched Big Lobowski, I'm like, this is everything I love Well, it's a real love letter to L.A.

Maybe to a slightly bygone L.A. But from similarly neurotic. It's the L.A. I actually moved into. Like, it could not be more, yeah, like, because I moved to L.A. 99. Right. Like, I moved into the Big Loboskies, L.A. Truly. I think about knocked up and, like, how you guys live in that big house with the pool that's, like, shitty. Like the birthday boys house.

Right. And it's like, that's what I, that was my old impression of L.A. It's like, yeah, you can kind of, there's burnouts and weirdos. And, like, it's so spread out that you can find all these pockets of people like the dude who just kind of like, what do they do all day? I don't know. The drive around like doesn't fucking do anything. Right. But it's like I'm allergic to entourage L.A. Oh, yes. That's a bad L.A. I have the love hate relationship with. Wait, entourage, that showed a bad vibe for you? It's kind of agro? I love the characters, just to be clear. And I endorse all of their actions. They're viewpoints. It's just the cars and the buildings. And their work. Most importantly, I admire their artistic work. Exactly. Um, no, but this movie, I'm like, this is all the stuff I like in L.A. when I go visit and I hang out with my friends who are like this. Who are unemployed.

And it takes me to places like this. And the knights have these vibes minus the conspiracy. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's exactly. Yeah. Like going to Ralph's in the middle, like that to me was a real quintessential thing, which might be a visual reference to the long goodbye now that I think of it. Because it also starts with him at the grocery store. But I think that that was, to me, that was like, as sort of like a stoner in L. in like being at Rouse at 3 in the morning and like an empty store like is such a familiar feeling to me. Well, so much of long goodbye. Like I would do my grocery shopping at two in the morning.

Which I would get by check? Exactly. I probably did. So much of Long Goodbye has that of like this tiny figure in this big wide frame just wandering around mumbling to himself doing banal tasks. Yeah, the movies are are inextricably linked to it. Yeah. And it's funny because like, it is funny because I feel like

Labowski's kind of viewed as like, I don't know if satire is the right word, but sort of like a, yeah, like a comedic take on these, uh, yeah, more self-aware take on these detective movies. Who's the worst character you could place into that type of story? Exactly. And the long goodbye is also sort of like, yeah. Like, and he's smart in that, I guess is the only difference that he's like a little more capable maybe, but like it very much is a similar vibe where it's like... It's sort of happening to him.

Yes, it's sort of happening to him. He sort of doesn't quite get what he's sort of a step behind a little bit all the time. He sort of has, he's not like smoking weed. I don't think throughout the whole movie, but he seems kind of stoned and out of it throughout the movie basically. Yeah. I mean, Sims and I are both very big Altman people and he was like a big turnkey. Do you like the long goodbye more than the Big Lobowski?

Uh, you probably do. I probably do. I've seen the Big Lobowski like a hundred times. My whole thing with it is it's just sort of one of those. It's very comforting. Beyond that, I put it on last night. I put it on the disc. It's so gorgeous.

One of the best-looking comedies, yeah. Right. True of any Cohen movie, obviously, their movies always look good. Roger Jenkins back there. It's so stunning to look at, and especially for a comedy. It is so rewarding. We also just did our driveway dolls episode very out of order. And watching these two back-to-back is kind of.

Yeah, what happened? What do they do? Enjoy that movie a lot. It's a cute movie. But you miss the, like, lush. Like, yeah, I mean, do you think that's a choice? I think so. I think that's all.

We'll get to it in 10 episodes. Yeah, just to preview it. I break it down. I think it's a little bit the movie being like, don't take us seriously. Like, we're having fun. It's silly. But I don't know. But that is the magic.

And people always say this, right? Of like, you can't make a comedy look too good or it stops being funny. There's this adage that I disagree with. I disagree with that. Yes. And I think a lot of your work has been like a rebuke to that. But there is that sort of narrative sometimes of like it just needs to be clean. bright wide

light everything as bright as you can so you can see all the fucking talking heads like cross cover something about Mary like effect I would say

is like and dumb and dumber and a lot of those movies are just like bright bright bright bright bright bright bright colors clueless I mean honestly

and that movie I'd say actually did it with like a creative intention in mind they weren't just like bright like there was

I think a lot of reasoning behind why that was a good choice for that specific movie. I agree. But I think as a result, oh yeah, I mean, I remember when we were shooting For Real Virgin, I was just, I remember at one time, like,

coming up and giving Judd, like, notes on how I thought we could make the frame more interesting. And he looked at me like I had lost my fucking mind. Like, literally looked at me like I was a crazy person. Yeah. He was like, make the frame more interesting. Like, he's like, as long as you can see the boner. Like, we're good.

Like, I think the first. and widescreen and full screen. Yeah. I think we're okay. Yeah. And it's funny because when we actually made Superbad. Superbad has like our grain. Well, yes.

And it's shot. Greg like shot it. You know what I mean? Like it's not all cross coverage. Like he would do in the store. There's like it was very designed. There's intentional shots. One shot will take you to this line.

And then a new shot will pick it up for these lines. I remember there was like some very heavy conversations that were had where Judd and it was just like, why are you not just cross-cover? Like, you need to just cross-cover this. And Mottolla was like, no, that's like not what I'm doing on this movie. Like, I will do it for some scenes, but that's not like what I'm just going to do. And blocking is the thing where you feel it the most. Like, it's when the characters don't move. And this movie has a lot of great blocking. Like, the Big Wobowski is like an excellently blocked film. And the characters move in a very elegant way that serves the timing and the comedy and the scenes in like a

really dynamic way, which I think is why it's not boring, even though it's like largely people talking in different ways, you know what I mean? Light on action often. So much of the self-perpetuating problem is you get into these zones where comedies have a lack of blocking because people are so worried about getting the correct amount of coverage. Exactly. To edit it. You don't want the amount of movement and readjustment of positions that will call.

cause more angles versus something like this where you just see that the Coins and the Deacons are like, these three actors are locked in. We can get this in a three shot in which they move six times and we only have to punch in for like two specials. I'm going to look at our research now, but like the thing I think of most and probably what baffled people

initially, right? Like, hey, let's go see the new Fargo guys movie. Why isn't about like stone bowlers doing nothing? Like those scenes where it's like dude, Donnie and Walter. And Donnie's right over the floor. And Donnie's over the shoulder and he keeps turning around. And they are all three having separate monologues, essentially, at different speeds, interrupting each other at the same time.

Without cuts. I don't know how you do that and have it make any sense. It makes perfect. That's the magic trick. That's like watching fucking like Fred Astaire dance with a hat rack. When I first moved to L.A., my manager had like a library in their office of like scripts, like just hundreds of scripts. And one of the first things I did was I got the script for the big Lobowski because I wanted to see how

those scenes were like literally laid out right right out and and they were they are written exactly as they are performed in the movie to like the half word right so they have it it's not like three columns of dialogue it's like telling you exactly when the interruption comes and when it goes back to the other person and i remember reading it being like oh my god like these guys like like plotted this out into like a microscopic rhythm right and but then i was like oh and that's why they could shoot it in a three shot because it's they're not finding it and it felt improvisational to me and i even on freaking geeks was the only thing i was making that time but we did a lot of improv and cross coverage and stuff so that's sort of how i assumed you had to capture that sort of like

naturalistic interrupty idea but then i was like oh no these guys just wrote it yeah they actually They actually broke it down and the actors just did it. And it was, that was very eye-opening for me. But I think it's why, yeah, it's why the movie looks, is allowed to look good. I mean, I feel like I will now always envision the straw man exact characters in my mind as the studio characters. But you just imagine people looking at the like the shooting schedule for this and being like, guys, so your plan is the only way to get the sequences for the actors to get it perfect. Yeah, exactly. There's no contingent.

here. The only way this works is you get a take where everyone nails it. That's not allowed. And that's like terrifying to people. Yeah, they don't like. As somebody who's done that, they don't like, I can tell you that. They don't love that. But it's the stuff that makes Cohen Brothers movies feel like, how

did this fucking happen? Yeah. That everything is so perfectly constructed and also feels kind of loose and miraculous. Do you want to say something, Benny? Well, I think we should get to the research. Yeah, yeah, I have a little surprise. Oh, yeah. I noticed you've covered something on a table with a shining blanket. Yes. I brought the accoutrema to make a white Russian.

We should do it. Yes. We have to. We have to. Seth did text me if there aren't white Russians in the studio, I'm leaving. I had to do it. I did text. There better fucking be white Russian. All right. Ben was trying to surprise. And then I arrived at the studio as he was arriving. And I was like, why do you have a bag of ice? I was going to do a whole thing. Some Caucasians. I like how he calls them Caucasians. I like that. All right. Well, then for. white Russians

and let's do it. Yeah. Ben. What's up, Griff? This is an ad break. Yeah. And I'm just, this isn't a humble brag.

It's just a fact of the matter. Despite you being on Mike, oftentimes when sponsors buy ads based on this podcast, the big thing they want is personal host endorsement. Right. They love it to get a little bonus,

Ben, on the ad read, but technically, that's not what they're looking for. But something very different is happening. right now. That's true. We have a sponsor comment and say, we are looking for the coveted Ben Hosley endorsement.

This is laser targeted. The product. We have copy that asks, is the product a porch movie? It certainly is. And what is today's episode sponsored by? The Toxic Adventure. The new Toxic Adventure movie

is coming to theaters August 29th. Making Blair's remake of... Reimagining. Reimagining, whatever. reboot of the toxic Avenger. Now, David and I have not going to see it yet, but they sent you a screener link. Yeah, I'm going to see it.

We're excited to see it, but Ben, you text us last night. This fucking rules. It fucks, it honks. Yeah. It's so great. Let me read you the cast list here in billing orders they asked, which I really appreciate. Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay. Tremblay, Taylor

Page, with Elijah Wood, and Kevin Bacon. Tremblay is Toxie's son. His stepson His stepson, okay Wade Goose Yes Great name

Give us the takes We haven't heard of them yet Okay You got Fucking Dingledge Is fantastic He's toxic He plays it with so much heart

Yeah It's such a lovely performance Bacon is in the pocket too man He's the bad guy He's the bad guy There's a lot of him shirtless Okay

Looking like a snack David? David sizzling Yep And then Elijah Wood plays like a dang ass free He certainly does He's having a lot of fun

Tell us some things liked about the movie. Okay, well, I'm a Jersey guy. Just got to say the original movie was shot in the town where I went to high school. Troma. Yes, yes, that's right, the original film, yep. I grew up watching Toxy and Trauma movies on porches. Yes. With my sleazy and sticky friends. It informs so much of my sensibility. Your friends like junkyard dog and headbanger. Yeah, exactly. Making Toxic Crusader joke. And so when I heard that they were doing this new installment, I was really emotionally invested. It was in limbo for a while before our friends at Cineverse rescued it and are now releasing it uncut.

But I feel like there have been years of you being very excited at the prospect, but also a little weary. They're playing with fire here. Yeah, it's just, it's something that means a lot to me. And they knocked it out of the fucking park. It somehow really captured that sensibility, that sense of humor, even just that, like, low-fi, scrappy kind of nature that's inherent in all of the trunk. movies in the original Toxie movies, and they have, like, updated in this way that it was just, I was so pleased with it. It's gooey, it's sufficiently gooey.

Tons of blood, tons of goo, great action. It's really fucking funny. It just, it hits all of the sensibilities that you would want in an updated version. Siniverse last year, released Terrifier 3 Unrated. Yeah. Big risk for them there. I feel like it's a very, very intense movie. And one of the more interesting, yeah, theatrical box office phenomenon is the last five years.

Want to make that happen again here. Tickets are on sale right now. Advanced sales really matter for movies like this. So if y'all were planning on seeing Toxic Adventure, go ahead and buy those tickets. Please go to Toxic Avenger.com slash blank check to get your tickets. Plank check one word. In theaters August 29th. Yeah.

And Ben, it just says here in the. copy, wants to call out that Elijah Wood plays a weird little guy who says, Summon the Nuts. Can you tell us anything about that moment without spoiling it? Summon the Nuts is in reference to a psychotic new metal band. Hell yeah. Who are also mercenaries. Cool. And drive a van with a skeleton giving two fingies up on the grill. And that's all I'll say.

Okay. And they are the most dang-ass freaks of dang-ass freaks. I'm excited to see it. And your endorsement, I think Kerry is more weight than anyone else is in the world on this movie. Seriously, get your tickets now. Go to toxicadvenger.com slash blank check. Do it. Do it.

I, as I told Ben, don't think I've had a white Russian since I was like 20 years old. Yeah, I haven't had one since I was at that bowling alley. right they are so disgusting no offense to the drink i'm possibly about to sip but uh i think i remember they hate milk they taste good yeah they're not a good drink to like consume it like a lot like you your stomach well being 20 and like because when you're 20 you're just drinking to get drunk so you're having like four or five or whatever is you're drinking and then a white russians a disgusting thing yeah such a bad thing to ingest right because it's doing other things to your body at the same time that are not cooperating with the drunkenness i was at a bar with a girl in

college. Humble brag. Yeah, and she told me, like, oh, they do good white Russians here. And then the bartender is where I wanted. I said, like, a white Russian. And he was like, get a real drink. Wow. And I never, ever ordered a white Russian again after that.

Not that I would really want one. They're gross. They are kind of gross. So, okay. All right. As Ben does, whatever he's doing. You know what he's doing. He's making four white Russians.

I watch him carry them in the movie. And every time my brain immediately goes to like, God, that glass is so dirty. Yes. It just looks gross. as a drug. Why do you think he drinks white Russians? Do you think that Kohns are just like, that's funny? Like, that's a funny drink. Well, there is a dude and we'll talk about that. There's

kind of two guys, right? But one of them is the main guy, and you probably met that guy. I have met that guy. And does he drink white Russians? Like, did they steal it from him? My assumption is yes. Our friend, Conor-Ratler, friend of the podcast, made a great point talking to him the other day,

that it's so funny that Fargo is like the pinnacle of their career up until this point, right? The anointment moment they win the Oscar. It's their biggest crossover hit. And it's one of the best movies. Oh, it's the best. Nothing wrong with it.

We love Fargo. I do want to point out, and JJ put this in the research, and it is crucial to note, Big Lavowski is a script they'd had for a long time and had been trying to make throughout the early 90s. It was their pineapple express. So we can only get this made once we have a hit. And according to JJ, it might have come first,

but Goodman before Fargo, but Goodwin was making Roseanne. Jeff Bridges was making white squall. Never forget. He got like 10 buckets of rain dumped on him every minute. The movie that like created QAnon. Yes.

Because the storm is coming? Yes. Where we go one, one goes all. All the quotes are white squall have become Q&on models. That is. Maybe the weirdest part about Q&N. Everything else. I don't say of all the stuff I've heard.

It's the thing that makes least sense. It's like how Proud Boys is all spun out of a song. deleted from Disney's Aladdin? Yes. Really? Yeah, proud of your boy. Yep. There's a song in Disney's Aladdin

where Aladdin's mom sings that she's proud of him. They decided to cut it because it's boring. Right. And then they grabbed it and said like, Disney cut this because they don't want women saying that men are good. Oh, well, that's true. 30 years ago.

They do. We need to be proud, boys. We need to create the Aladdin's mom that never existed to make us feel proud. Doesn't that make them a lot dorkier? I mean, not that they need So the Coens, it's a personal movie in a way

And yes, it's based on dudes they know Can I just finish this thought? The Conner point, it's tied to what you just said That he was like, I think part of the legitimacy bestowed upon Fargo as these guys have stopped fucking around and made a real movie Was the false selling of Fargo as a true story Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's so true

Which lent some weight and all the weird cohenisms of it People were like, well, but they didn't make it up I guess the story's just really quirky and that Lubowski people are like, what the fuck is this? This is bullshit. This came from nothing. And you're like,

the movie is based on two real people. So the circumstances aren't real, but the characters are very much riffing on real people. So there's this guy Peter X-Line, Pete X-Line, who is like one inspiration who had been like, worked for Michael Douglas and then was a professor at USC. There's this guy Lou Abernathy, but who's sort of like a Walter type.

But John Milius is obviously a big inspiration for Walter. The Zen fascist. Right. And then this guy, Jeff Dowd, that's the guy you're talking about, who is sort of like, he calls himself the Popa Dope and like he was a member of the Seattle 7, which like the dude says he was. And was he an entertainment lawyer? Yeah, he's just like a, and I just feel. He produced Fern Gulley, among other things. And like when you look at him, because he's still around. He looks like the dude. And he kind of feels like the real Kramer from Seinfeld, right? How that guy was kind of like. I'm going to cash in on being Framer. Yes. Like, he's still just

kind of being the dude. And you've met this guy. I have met him. Yes. And he was annoying. Cool. So Peter X-Line, the thing with him is,

they were at his house one time. He's some fucking USC professor guy. And he had a really shitty rug in his shitty house that he would not stop saying really tied the room together. That's really funny. So they never forgot that. X-Line, when they ask him about it,

talks about this fake Persian rug where, I mean, he admits like that it was it was a conversation piece in his shitty house. And he, X-Line once told them a story about his Mazda getting stolen. And then when he found it in an impound lot, it had like a 14-year-old's homework in it. Oh, that's really funny. So they never forgot that either. Like they have a lot of like little weird anecdotes from these crusty Hollywood guys. That's what this movie feels like, it feels like 20 years of incubation of like a notebook of things that got stuck in their craw of like, that's funny. And how could. we unify all of this. Yeah, and I remember me and Evan hearing that, and that actually being very inspirational when we started writing Pineapple Express, literally. Like, I remember us thinking, like, oh, you can sort of accumulate a bunch of ideas and create a narrative

that allows you to bring them to life. Right. You don't have to like start with the story. You can start with a bunch of little things and then create a story that sort of architecturally supports these ideas. And like, can you build a character strong enough that can hold all of these

separate things that becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Yeah. X-Line also was a Vietnam bet who could not stop talking about Viet, like would bring it up all the time. And so they did have that in their heads. I think this movie is very wisely set during the Gulf War. Right. It's 92.

91 or 92 because it's like we won the Gulf War so fast. You know, we like ripped through Iraq so fast. Yeah. And when David said one, he gave two thumbs up just for that. Woo! And I do think it's quietly making Walter matter that like America just crushed some fucking war yeah and he's still this like piece of shit vietnam bet that you know nobody likes thinking about that right obviously john millius who i feel

like just sort of the agro energy right the kind of like the way he looks the guy the way you hear about john milus is just being like eternally ready for war in a weird way he would he described himself as the zen fascist yes right that it was this weird class did you get there uh i got an Indiana Jones. Beautiful. Okay. And the Great Circle. It's the Xbox game.

This was a promo item for their IHop menu. I went to know I spent a lot of pan coins to buy that. Yeah, you're originally, I don't like you. Let me take my lactate before this fucking cocktail. That's vodka and milk. Oh, that's like very nostalgic to me. Yeah. It brings me back to 1999 to the bowling alley.

It's quite good. Yeah, it's not bad. You know what? Yeah. I actually like it. So they, and, like, Milius is kind of, he's a fake vet. He didn't serve in the military.

Like he, but they, he had all his paraphernalia, so like, he's in their brain with Milius. They met him when they're making Barton Fink, I think. Spielberg had great Milius stories. And they were friends. And he was, he was like, that guy's amazing.

Because he was kind of the old. He was like, the old guy. He was like, and he had had success sort of before. When they're all coming up. Exactly. But he was the badass of all the movie brats, which is to your point,

like this guy wasn't actually a Vietnam vet. Right. And it wasn't that this guy wasn't extreme. But it's like George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, are all like, this guy's unreal, you know, which is like, it fits into the same character where you're like he's not actually, Walter isn't actually powerful within his world. No, but around these sort of like meek dudes, he's very, he is powerful. Like, why is he hanging out with Donnie just so he can tell Donnie to shut the fuck out?

Exactly why. Right, exactly. Now, Jeff Dowd, the guy you have met, who was in the same. Seattle 7th, is like, he claims he does not drink white Russians. Okay. He says, hey, man, sometimes it's Harvey Wallbanger, sometimes it's tequila sunrises. It's always a silly stupid drink. That does sound like it's true.

And like old timey. Old timely named drinks, yeah. Ethan Cohen's take is basically like the dude is kind of personally more like Jeff Dowd, but like, you know, with these mixed in other anecdotes, but the physicality is kind of that guy. And like, that's maybe the most. but then also you hear that like bridges contributed a lot of the clothes and like he's like from he's like a california guy yeah like it feels like he's tapping something in

himself that he maybe hadn't quite tapped yet yeah it's just like how true grit turned him into like an old cowboy it turned him into that guy yeah every movie he makes up to true he's like you know and like for a while after big labowski he was the dude yes he was the dude and then what he does i think if you see him on the street and you recognize and if you either say to him Hey, man, I love the Big Lobowski, or Hey, man, I love true great. You'll get a different gentleman's depending on which what you say. I do feel like. If you say I love both, he'll give you a really funny.

Have you ever met him? I have one, maybe one or two times. And yeah, and I ran up to him, and I went the Lebowski route, and I got a very dudeish response. And it was, it was amazing. It was lovely. It does feel like the dude. has either become the closest thing to his, like, default persona in life if as an actor, right?

Because even, like, the year after this is the contender, where he's back in, like, the most handsome man in high. But I remember meeting... He went to Stain for a while. He was as he was in the Stain. He went to Stain. He cleaned the stain. He went back.

No Tide Pen could fight this thing. It is so funny that Iron Man had to run through him before he deals with Dinosauron, like space alien. You take out Jeff Bridge was the first than a space god I'm going to build a slightly bigger suit than you I like negotiated

obviously they start writing this script James M. Kane is their blood simple like Miller's Crossing is Datchel Hammett this is Raymond Chandler right? Like they're like it's perfect dressing for this plot. Have you guys rewatched the big sleep

recently? Not in the last 10 years. I've seen it several times I never know what's going on at the end which I know is part of the point. It is sexy and cool. Right. I watched it for actually, I think, the first time, like a few years ago. And I was some parts of it I really liked, but I was mostly like what the fuck is going on.

I love Humphrey Boggart. I think Humphrey Bogart is just like maybe the coolest. He's the coolest guy ever and like is unbelievably watchable. He's so cool in the big sleep. He's playing a guy who fucks. Yes. He's so cool in that movie. Like in Casablanca, which these are all movies I love.

In Casablanca, he's like, I don't fuck anymore. I just have this bar and I'm sad. In Maltese Falcon, which is my favorite of his movies, he's like, I need to figure out what's going on with all you assholes. Like, but in big sleep, he fucks. He wants, you know, he's just being a cool motherfucker. He's just kind of cool. But it is similar where he seems kind of confused as to what's happening throughout a lot of the movie.

Right, the spectrum of those movies, which are all kind of about perfect style, these impossibly cool, leading men. Yeah. And these undecipherable plots, right? And then Long Goodbye does the modernist version of that. which is this is who this guy thinks he is in his mind. We're placing him in a modern context. The world at large is not in sync with him.

The kind of like stylish voiceover narration is now just like mumbled to himself like a crazy person. And then Big Lobosky adds the additional distance of what if this guy doesn't even know he's in that type of story and the narrator is someone else who he barely meets at a bar who can't even finish his thought. He can't even like quite remember or doesn't quite understand what's happening. That is, I mean, rewatching it, it's funny that it's like, some things like that where you're like, oh, this is so much weirder than I remember it being.

Like, the, the Sam Elliott narration is much stranger than I remember it. It's strange because they call him the stranger. It's strange because he's doing a bad job. Yeah. Like, as a narrator. And they kind of paint him as like this all-knowing guy, but he doesn't know anything. He gets lost and a strain of all in the plane. He interrupts the movie to be like, do you have to curse so much?

And Jeffers is like, what? And he's like, don't worry about it. Like, it's very funny. But it is, it's weird. We talk about this kind of, like, my favorite kind of Cohen dialogue is this, like, big, chunky monologue that is, like, a freeway that takes off ramps and merges back into the freeway where characters, like, answer the questions they pose themselves. And that's usually done in such a ratatat, fast-talking way. And you got Sam Elliott, who's going to slow that down to a molasses crawl, but then you're also going to have him not figure out how to get back on the highway. You're, like, starting with a broken version of a Cohen monologue.

Yeah, and it starts with, like, narration that doesn't work. But nobody in this movie makes sense. So, like, you've got the dude who moves through every plot line, sort of competent, but, like, also not paying attention. And then we'll be, like, saying things he heard in the last, like, episode. Yeah, he repeats a lot of things. Right. He repeats things that don't really, you know.

And then you have Walter, who literally makes the wrong decision every single time. And, like, works himself into a frenzy. And then the final wrong decision, I feel like, is pulling. the Bigelbowski out of the wheelchair. I mean, like, the funeral's like a coda, but that's sweet, but like him being like this guy walks and at this point, you're like, I swear to God, he's not going to, like, he's not going to do

something about this one. You know he's going to. It's one of the greatest scenes in any it. It's just fun. Like, there's a classic Cohen's story in that they like wrote 40 pages and they were like, that's interesting. And they got stuck and they like put it away and then they put it back. To explain

the narration, they say he's like an audience substitute and like Chandler's stories always have a narrator so he kind of wanted like but like they can't really explain it's not a decision to be like

you couldn't have Lobowski narrate this movie because that gives him too much of a connection to the story he has to be pushing against it and the big driving force for Lobowski is you said like him wanting the rug back is the act of choice he makes

that keeps the whole movie going right but that choice is driven by this guy wants to do nothing the only act of things he does is to try to reset back to the status quo of where he is at the beginning which is I'm unemployed I like everything in my apartment

and I have my routines. You know, I got my Roach clip, I got the white Russians. But the thing that does stress me out is if he just got the 20 grand initially from the, you know, job he fails to do the, you know, it feels like the dude could live on 20 grand for like

forever. Five to 10. Like, he doesn't seem to pay rent anyway. He barely He, like, abhors that level of ambition. I know. His pride in being unemployed? Yeah. Anyway, yeah, I mean, they said it in, like, the more marginal L.A., Venice Beach,

the Valley Pasadena, or whatever, you know, like, that's what they were interested in. And then Pete, one of the inspirations is a big softball guy, but they were like, bowling is, like, makes more sense. It's aesthetically more pleasant. It's very male, which we think is, like, we want these guys to just be sitting around. It's also weirdly rhythmic in a way that feels very cool. coensy of just like the kind of repetition of the role and the sounds and the wood and yeah now the craziest thing obviously is their first choice was mel gibson for the dude whoa which is so wild now do you

know which role mal gibson would have played well he could rocked he would have killed walter no one could be better than goodman but he would have done a great walter yeah he actually would have he's maybe too scary like walter there's like an impotence to walter a little bit yeah he does need to be like not actually yeah if he had played walter at the time people would have said, where did this come from? This is an amazing transformation. And now we would have said he gave us all the clues. Exactly.

It was all there. We'd be like, oh. And Bill Gibson has himself. Gibson reads the script is like, this is kind of funny. There's no way I'm not going to do this. Like, this is like ransom era Gibson or whatever. Jeff Bridges famously is kind of like, especially back then, like a waffler. Like he would like flirt with projects and not decide what to do.

He was like kind of tough to nail down. He was like, should I play like a pothead? he had, like, teenage daughters and worried he'd set a bad example. I mean, this feels very old-fashioned. He's still in, like, near-peak handsomeness era, too. He's kind of like a B-list movie star, like a really sturdy studio leading man with a lot of Oscar nominations under his belt, but it felt like he was at a comfortable level of like, you handle mid-budget trauma.

What were the other big Jeff Bridges movies around this? It's like, you know, Fearless, which is a great movie is. Morning after me. Peter Weir movie. Peter Weir movie. Were you, Strawberries? Yes. Blown away is 94 with Tomi Lee Jones.

There's two movies called Blown Away, and I always watch. One is that one. I can't remember. It's the one with Corey Haim and Corey Feldman. That sounds right. Let me look this up. Yep, yep, yep. I like that Tommy Lee Jones.

And they're both from around the same time. Timmerly Jones does the worst, is he supposed to be? Irish accent, maybe in the history of. Yes. It's Corey Haim and Nicole Egert. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

But the right, the one you're talking about, right, is... And Corey Feldman, both, Corey. That thing, like, blown away Patriots game, the Devil's Zone, like, when, like, IRA guys were, like a Hollywood film. Yeah, that was a good target. That was a good, easy villain for us. Bridges was kind of, like, you know, $40 million movie. That has a free light. I'm going to give you the rest around this time.

Harrison Ford turns it down, get Jeff Bridges. Yeah, like, but it's like, obviously, he did the Fisher King in the early 90s. That's a great movie. But he did the vanishing remake. Uh-huh. Which is like, okay. He did Fearless, Blown away. he played Wild Bill Hickok in a, like, a bio-pick that was a Walter Hilt movie, but wasn't a hit.

White Squall, which he's like good in, but it's, again, it's him just like yelling. And it was good for the culture. Good for the culture. And then Mirror has two faces, which we covered on this show. Barber Strysend, your former co-star. Which, that movie's, have you seen The Mirror Has Two Faces? Like, it's a really weird. Yeah, it's about her.

like changes her face and yes yes yeah I listened to her whole all 50 hours for autobiography recently it was it is more similar to Big Lobowski than you would imagine and that it just sort of has that is weird the last thing he'd done before the Big LaBouse

wow that's and then right after he does Arlington Road which feels again more like another blur I like that movie movie's fun yeah that's fine but that's he's like the king of kind of like adult counter programming mid-budget studio fair well being a very beloved, respected actor.

Anyway, his daughters are like, do whatever movie you want. And he says he was sort of like, I guess I am kind of like the dude. I do sit around all day smoking weed. Although, he says he does not smoke weed while making the Big Lobos. He's a professional. Right. And he said

that, like, the script is written exact, like the dialogue is written. Like, he said that once in a while, I would put in an extra man and it would fuck up the line. Like, you could tell, like, no, they already they already balanced every line out. Yeah, when I did the table read, it is weird because, like, you are, you know, you kind of just do it. And like, and it is one of those things were like, it's like, just by reading it, I'd be like, it's happening.

Like, if you just say every word, it sounds exactly like the dude. It was really remarkable in a lot of ways. Well, you are, you are so good as an actor, a writer, and an improviser. And I feel like you have a skill at being able to take material and put it in your own voice. in a way that isn't fighting against the movie. But then also, like, the movies we've covered that you have been in, those are things where it's like, you got to play this part, you got to fit into this.

This isn't you making it. Not a lot of riffing. But, like, Steve Jobs is something where it's like you have that monologue, which I love so much that is like seven unbroken minutes, where I'm sure you cannot move, like, a letter. No, what's weird about Aaron Sorkin, though, actually, is he was, if I would go to him, which I did a few times, and was like, this is a little weird coming out of my mouth.

He'd be like, I'll rewrite it. Like, he's a Hollywood guy. I was completely, if anything, he would give it back. I'd be like, I think you changed too much of this. Like I literally thought like these few words could be adjusted. And he'd be like, no, I realize it like, he, I was actually, all I had heard was how rigid he was. Tony Kushner, I would say, was more someone who has put like an insane amount of thought into every word choice in a way that I had never. never even considered as a writer, like what sound, literally, like what the consonants,

what sounds they make when, and, you know, that, well, when you say you, it has a certain power, but when you say you, you guys, it means something totally different. And when you say, I, like, and it was stuff like that where I was just like, oh, my God. This is a level of, like, like, overthinking perhaps that, that I don't engage in. But then what was funny is Stephen didn't care. And so he would just be like, oh, say, like, like, he almost had bad, the funniest part of that whole movie to be. And this is like

the perfect example of that conflict in a lot of ways is like, there's this line there's line in the script where Paul Dano were arguing and then Michelle comes out and starts dancing in front of the fire and we kind of start watching her. And in the script, as that's happening, Paul like quotes

like a famous, like James Joyce poem or something like that. And, and, And I would, Stephen doesn't rehearse ever. Like, so if you want to rehearse, it's incumbent on you to find time to do it, basically. But basically, he's shooting the first block. He doesn't want to rehearse. Right.

He's like, I don't want to rehearse. And he's like, I honestly, like, don't want to talk about the acting. Like, he's like, I don't want to talk about it. He's like, do it. And I'll tell you if I want something different, basically. And so me and Paul would get together at my house sometimes to rehearse some of like the more dialoguey scenes. And so when we showed up on set, we were like...

When you've got to be dropping, like, science and math. Exactly. Especially it's all these words. I literally don't know what they mean. And we kept rehearsing it. He kept being like, this one James Joyce line. Like, it might not be that. But let's pretend it.

He's just like, this is the line that like I'm really like, I'm kind of finding it hard to say, but then I kind of keep rediscovering, like, what it might be about. And I've been talking to Tony Kushner about and a lot. And there's been an interesting back and forth about about this line. And he's like, but to me, like, this line is so important and sort of like summarized. is the whole thing in a lot of ways that, like, I want to just make sure that I do it right. And then we're shooting the seed and we're blocking it.

And Steven's like, so we're on you guys. And then you say this, Seth, and that moment, Michelle comes out, and I'm going to pan with her. And she goes over there and starts dancing, and I'm filming her dancing. And Paul's like, well, if you pan away from me when she crosses, like, you're, that I say my line after that. So the shot won't get my line.

And Steven's like, oh, forget the line. You're fine. And I just thought, it's like, Paul looks at me and it's like, what? Like, forget the line. And you can see, you know, but to Stephen's credit, he's also like, it's like, I'll shoot it. Like, don't worry. You know, like, it doesn't matter. Like, if I'm directing this properly, I'm in charge here.

It doesn't make a difference also. Like, he's like, trust me, the shots will tell the story properly. It's a thing, especially when we rewatch, like, I don't, I can't. I can't think of an example of this in Lubowski, but especially when we rewatch, like, some of the most totemic, quotable, repeated movies of all time, where you watch sequences and you're like, they actually aren't covered in the way you remember in your mind's eye, where you don't see that actor's face during the famous line delivery. There's so many examples where it's like an off camera over the shoulder, and all logic would be like, well, that's the big line. You need to get it in a close up with them, like, selling it. Oh, I'm always saying that. I mean, it's like some of the biggest laughs in our movies are like off-camera lines.

Like, literally, like, you don't care at all as long as you hear it. Hey, this episode is brought to you by Lurker, the feature debut from Alex Russell, right, and producer on The Bear and Beef. Those are two separate shows. But when you say it like that, it sounds like it's one show called The Bear and Beef, which could be interesting, but it doesn't exist. and that's not what this is. This is his new movie that stars Theodore Pellora from Boas Afraid and Archie Matawake from Saltburn.

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A transfixing tale of LA Obsession gone awry that's what Indy Wire said. A borderline paranoid thriller made for the star fucker and everyone, that's what Roger Ebert.com said, and they put a star, ironically, in the word starfucker to censor it, but I'm going to say it because this is the kind of show it is. One of the best movies of the year, riveting and disquieting, said Vogue, super sharp, a wicked spin on the fame game, a wicked spin, says the Hollywood reporter, and they would know more about the fame game than almost anyone else. Lurker is now playing in select theaters.

It opens nationwide September 5th. You visit mooby.com slash lurker to see showtimes, get tickets. That's M-U-B-I-com slash lurker. David! This episode of Blank Check with Griffin, David, a podcast about filmographies, is brought to you by booking.com. Booking dot, yeah. I mean, that's what I was about to say.

Booking dot, yeah, from vacation rentals to hotels across the U.S. Booking. dot com has the ideal stay for anyone even those who might seem impossible to please god i'm trying to think of anyone in my life perhaps even in this room ben who's like what's an example of someone i know who maybe has a very particular set of demands bringing me in and there's only one other person in the room there is one other person in the room right now i think this is so rude i sleep easy i'm definitely not a someone who insists on 800 thread count sheets no that's a that's a an example of a fussy person.

Look, people have different demands. And you know what? If you're traveling, that's your time to start making demands, you know? Maybe you've got a partner whose sleep light rise early or maybe, you know, like you just want someone who wants a pool or wants a view or I don't know, any kind of demands. Maybe I'm traveling and I need a room with some good soundproofing because I'm going to be doing some remote pod record. Sure.

Maybe you're in Europe and you want to make sure. That's very demanding to be in Europe. You got air conditioning, which I can think of one person in particular, although it's really both of you. You got to have air conditioning. I need air conditioning if I'm in the North Pole. Look, if I can find my perfect stay on booking.com, anyone can. Booking.com is definitely the easiest way to find exactly what you're looking for. Like for me, a non-negotiable is I need a gorgeous bathroom for selfies.

You do. You love selfies. As long as I got a good bathroom air for. selfies, I'm happy with everything else. Look, they're, again, they're specifying like, oh, maybe you want a sauna or a hot tub, and I'm like, sounds good to me. Yeah, please. Can I check that one of those in the recordings, do that'd be great.

You want to start, you want to be, I'll be in the sauna when we were recording. I was going to say, you want to be the Dalton Trumbo, a podcast. You want to be splash and we'll talk. It would be good if I had a sauna and a cold plunge and while recording, I'm on mic, but you just you're going back. I'm like, ah!

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Booked today on the site or in the end. Booking.com. Booking. Yeah. Pigglbowski, just to wrap up the research, Walter, written for John Goodman. Really? No choice other than John Goodman for the Coens. Goodman says it's the best movie he ever made, best thing he ever did.

He is unbelievable in this film. He's unreal. He should have won an Oscar for this movie. There's no awards for this movie. No one gave a shit because their previous movie had won a lot of Oscars. You're totally right. It's really weird. And again, I think it speaks like what I was saying before we started rolling is like, I feel

like there has been this like, like people did not like this movie when it came out. And my memory is it got bad reviews. and I was actually shocked when I went on Rotten Tomatoes and had 80% or something like that. I was like, that is not what this was. You can't trust Rotten Tomatoes for an old movie. Can we sidebar here for a second? Please.

The Cinematrix. I don't know if you play the Voltres. Oh, I do Cinematrix. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Our friend Joe Reed who runs that. Shout out to Joe Reed. We gripe every time there's a Rotten Tomato score as a prompt in that.

Yeah, because it's not real. It's a living text. Yes. Beyond it being a bad metric, it's a living text where you're like, well, I can start my website tomorrow called like Grifflikesmovies. dot org and be like Big Lebowski 100%.

And then that will up its tomato score versus what I want is how was it received at the time? Well, I also think a lot of like, I mean, I could be. You're right. I'm almost sure like the Hollywood reporter like re-publishes new reviews. So they're not on the wrong side of history. Like no one like 2001 when it came out and now it has like 100%. Like they whatever publications gave it bad reviews. And what's funny is I feel like I said this one.

on Twitter something and like I got like a tag savage on Twitter exactly but by movie critics you're like really that doesn't happen no they don't do that and I was like they do that happens like the general I'm looking at this general thing over there like people didn't like that movie when it came up and now you go on Ron Tomatoes it has 100% or something but what

it's a real disservice I think to people who are interested in movies because you are not getting the actual context of how these movies were received when they came out and if you gave the a bad review a hundred years ago, you should shut the fuck up and deal with it and eat it. Also, congrats on being a hundred and fifteen years old. Exactly.

And if you've made it to that age, you should take the ding and fucking accept that you, that you were on the wrong side of the general just as you were on the wrong side of 2001 and the Big Lobowski. Just how the character in the general was on the wrong side of the war. He was. We should acknowledge that. When you look at Metacritic,

which does a pretty good job trying to find like the actual, of the time reviews. And it's also better at not being a consensus but being a sense of how positive the reviews were rather than what percentage

and it has a 71 on Metacritic and even that I imagine is a little inflated by later stuff. But you see like Ken Turan in the LA Times being like,

film feels like totally thrown together half hazard. Yeah. And like I get it. It's crazy. I can sort of understand people,

critics sitting down in 1998 for this like Fargo follow up and being like, I don't fucking get it. It's like so composed and it's so. That's the thing.

deliberate and intricate. Were they just spoiled at the time, like, that there were just too many good-looking movies? I think so. I honestly think maybe, like, it's so interesting. The Associated Press were, like, let down. Strange for the sake of being strange, like, just, like, has nothing to say bad inside joke. People treated it like it was like epic bacon the movie. And they were like, it's all just rando shit. I also, a thing I saw a lot of critics at the time repeat is, it basically doesn't have a story. Just saying, like, this movie is just this meandering series of like bullshit with no story and you're like if anything the slam should be

the opposite yeah there's too much well there's a lot of plot right is an unconventional script like it but i think almost that's what's oddly magical about it is it sort of foregoes a lot of traditional things but remains incredibly entertaining and watchable i think in like a moment to moment basis and even though you don't quite get what the fuck is happening you really want to know what happens next. Like, and I, because it's so funny and, like, the characters are so interesting, but it is, I get why it would be challenging to people at the time, because it sort of is from people who you, like, are used to kind of getting their work, I think. And then it's also at a time when comedy is, like, so big, you know? And not very, yes, and not very, like,

conversational. Like, I think that's actually, I remember when we were making 40-old Virgin, we were writing super bad, like, we were so inspired by this movie, me and Evan, because we were like, oh, they actually, like, swear as much as we do when we talk. Yeah. And at the time, that was, like, crazy. That was like that allowed. You couldn't do it in a movie. Like, the, like, all these movies.

It was a Scorsese movie where the point is, these are the worst people on the planet. But even something about Mary, they'll show you like a fucking, like, gaping asshole. You know, like, but like, yeah, but like, they aren't casually profane. They're kind of very innocent. And, and that was always a thing that I, like, really was. kind of a fan of and something that my work would later reflect

I'd say in many ways but but that was to me like I think that's why it's aged well is it sort of more reflective of comedies that came out right that are 10 years later you know it is literally like you guys taking stuff from it and then literally

taking stuff from you guys the movies you made and then I'm making movies in 2006 and 7 and 8 and and us talking about this movie a lot but you like you think about there were always, there would be those stupid repeated stats of like the Guinness Book of World Records for most

fucks in a movie. Yeah. And there were always like four movies that people would repeat. It was like Casino Goodfellas, nil by mouth held the record for a while. Nile by mouth, they only say the word fuck. Right. That's the thing. It's like, right. Every, the only word spoken is fuck. It was movies where it's like about like murders, criminals

or movies where you're like Cosfancy. Movies where that's like the stylistic choice. Yeah. And Jerry does have the most jerrys, right? It's in for the World Records. I think so. Only seconds at Tom and Jerry.

Well, because that has a lot of Tom. That more time, they bounce it out too much. It's split in the vote. But then you, I know you guys talk a lot about, like, Kevin Smith influencing you in that way, and that's a movie where people talk the way the people talk. His first couple of films. Like, yeah. Certainly the way he talks. It is.

And then, right, like, you guys kind of, like, put that on a mainstream scale where there is this shift post, like, I think so much about that summer were knocked up and Superbad come out within eight weeks of each other. Yeah. And it feels like the entire culture shifts. Yeah. Of just like all of this is now just understandable by everybody. Yeah, it was. But I think like, well, even when we were making 40-year-old virgin, I was like, they should be swearing casually all the time.

And that was like my biggest creative contribution to the movie is I was like, we should be smoking weed casually and swearing all the time. And there's two things that are very much from the big old mouse Yeah, because like four year old virgin That's that's sort of Steve's movie Like that he brings to Judd

And he and I was brought on as like Because he's kind of a character He'd done at Second City Exactly Right and I was brought on as like a co-producer To help write the script And to rewrite it as we were doing it And that was always my thing

Because I was like There's gonna be an R-rated movie We should fucking go for it Like we should We should have them I remember And Corel was very uncomfortable with it. Right.

And he's from that prior generation. He didn't want to swear. I remember I had to write a whole script that was like, there was no swearing it. Like I had to like redo every scene. And I was always coming up with clean versions. That's where that Kelly Clarkson joke came from. Because I literally was tasked with like, what are not profane things that he could say? Right.

Like as he's getting waxed. And I even remember like there's the scene where me and Rudd are playing video games and we're saying, you know, I know you're gay, and we're smoking weed, like, from a pipe in that scene. And even that was like, are you sure? They were like, this is crazy. Yeah. Like, it was still in going electric. Yeah.

There was, they were never, there was never people smoking weed if the joke wasn't that they were smoking weed. Right. They was, it was always, if they were smoking weed, it was the joke. And, and if they, but I was like, people just sit around and smoke weed also. It's not, it's not always the joke. And I remember when we did it, in the theater, people like burst into applause. just like at the sight of two guys smoking weed and playing video games and, like, swearing.

And at the time, that was, like, somehow revolutionary. The thing about that movie, and I do remember, I mean, like, the first time I saw it and at the theater and all that, is you're also watching all those characters kind of realize they all, like, hanging out. Like, at the start of the movie, they just, like, work at the TV store

and they hate it or, and, like, you're watching them. They all want to hang out and talk about their dicks. You say 40-year-old virgins, I mean, the first image that pops into my head is him sitting on, comfortably at the poker table. It becomes the boob conversation. But that's like the movie that the whole,

that's like the idea of the whole movie is based on. But also that is the motor that you just described of this guy doesn't like all this cursing happening. But it's sort of worked for the movie. Yeah. All the friends, you guys all react with like, can we get you laid?

Instead of being like, oh, I don't want to deal with you. Yeah. That's why the movie's fun. It's sweet. Yeah, exactly. Yes.

It's fun to hit each other with the fluorescent light bulbs. Yeah. That was something that me and my friends picked up. I remember we did a Taylor Reed and Adam McKay. That was his strong pitch. Whose idea was? David Caruso and Jade. That was me for sure.

Because I was going to say, that's the best line. That's the best line on that. Okay. That and Karell being like, I know exactly what that. Oh, yes, of course. There's another thing. We mentioned that a lot on the podcast. I often cite it as my single favorite line of dialogue, the funniest line of dialogue in any movie.

and I need to know if this came from you and Evan or from Hader in Superbad when you're driving McLevin around and you're doing Star Wars impressions and then Hater turns back and he goes, you know Yoda from Attack of the Clones? Yeah, that was Bill Hater. That was the funniest joke. That was so stupid. That was just really making ourselves laugh. Yoda from Attack of the Clothes.

Yoda from Attack of the Clothes. It was so stupid. Me and Bill loved fucking with Christman's boss. who was a child at the time. Right. And I remember we were talking about the movie Short Circuit. Like, we'd film all these scenes where he's in the back of the car and Bill would just talk.

And we were talking about, oh, yeah, it's like, we're just kind of reminiscing. It's like, right, it's like the robot. He gets struck by lightning. That's what brings him to life? And Chris is like, what do you guys talk about? And we're like, this movie, Short Circuit. And he's like, oh, what is that? And he never heard of it.

And Bill goes, it's a documentary about a robot that comes to life. And Chris, like, got hit my life. And I feel like this was, like, maybe a little before, like, everyone just was Googling everything all the time. And for, like, several weeks, we convinced Christmas boss that Short Circuit was a documentary about a robot, which made the Fisher Stevens playing an Indian guy even more confusing. Right. This was real? You're like, that's the real guy, huh? But I feel like, to your point, right?

Like, you guys had this sort of, like, devotion to this idea of why are comedies not reflecting a certain, like, social reality, right? And that in sort of studio logic, these things need to be justified as that is the entire point of the movie. If you were making a stoner movie, it is Cheech and Chong. Every scene is driven by these guys overwhelming desire to get their hands. They're like smoking weed in a van made of weed. Right. And look at an object. They turned it into a bomb.

Right. And it's like if weed exists in a movie, it is either that or there is a set piece scene in which a character smokes by. someone smokes weed and has the crazy and then they like fuck a bucket or whatever it is right and those are like the only two things yeah it's like it's like all about that similarly if a character's cursing a lot it's like this character is a bad person yeah they're like a mafia guy

or something it's one scene of john polito i went to college in 2004 and i do think part of the thing with this movie is like there weren't a lot of good stoner no there were almost none like there were Cheech and chung or whatever that felt very old fashion which i actually think it's one of the reasons it struck such a big cultural story like i really think really think that the culture was swerving that way yeah and when we made pineapple express we could

just see that there was like so few good things that even like had the care and attention put into them as like any normal thing put that for people who smoke weed or even like mentioning people who smoke weed in a respect like like giving them the respect of actually like crafting something that is like worthy of watching and this movie i think was probably like cathartic to a lot of people in a lot of ways because you're like oh like the cohen brothers like some of the best living filmmakers I mean, and I won't stop sucking your dick after this, but just like with Super Dad, Super Bad. Like, I'm watching that. I was, uh, when in that come out, oh, six or seven.

It came out the summer between my high school graduation and going to college, which I was just like, that was like watching the movie in 10 DX. Yeah. It was the most visceral. I thought like five times. I was right out of college. I just graduated. But still, right, I felt like, like that was a movie where it's like, they want to fuck, but they're pretty scared of it. Oh, yeah.

And like, they're. weren't, like, sex comedies were instead about, like, guys who were, like, you know, 28 years old playing 17-year-olds being like, I can't wait to get laid. And Superbad is them being like, I'm interested, but I wouldn't know what to do. And I'm scared. Yeah. And, like, I don't think I'd ever seen that in a movie, like, that way before. No, like, Michael Sarah in bed with Martha McEyes.

Like, this is, like, the eyeball being cut in shone on the loose. You're finally tapping into the most, like, primal terror in my being. Yeah, is, like, the girl's hornier than you. Yeah. And what do you do with that? What am I supposed to do with that? Yeah, it was, and that's, it's very reflective of our real life experience. But like, on ramp back, I mean, all of this is, but all of this is like connected.

It's heavily inspired by the most. I know, I know. I always think about you and Evan talking about. And the three, I'd say Evan and Michael and McLevin is inspired by Waltz and the dude and Donnie. That energy, like, Joe is very much Walter. That like, like, palpable sort of. aggressive, argumentative, dynamic to us with something. And even the, like, shut the fuck up, Fogel.

Literally. I mean, literally. No, I was going to say, I've heard you guys talk about so much how, like, making movies are, it's so difficult, and so many things can go wrong, and it can be so embarrassing and demoralizing, that it's kind of like, it's not worth doing unless you have an idea that you're willing to die to make. Yeah. And that you talk about when you were, like, started right super bad, and the years of you

trying to get it made when you didn't have like the clout in Hollywood. You were like we would die to get this film made and no one else gets it because it's like a fucking high school sex comedy, but it means this much to us that there's something we have to say and the dismissal of Big Lobowski at the time is so weird with this attitude

of like, are they fucking pranking us? Where you watch this and you do feel like this is a movie they were willing to die to make. Yeah, and they're like, we'll use all the cachet from winning Best Picture and put it into this like stoner comedy. It has that like weird level of urgency and thought to it of like

we have always wanted to make this and this is the only moment where we get away with it. Yeah, but we have the cachet to do. Yeah. The movie costs $15 million. And Bridges, apparently when he got like the whatever low ball offer that like they sent him was like, you guys just won an Oscar. You can't pay me more money. And they were like, we want the budget low, so they won't fuck with us. It's another thing I think about a lot. You guys have talked about the post green

hornet thing of like, you guys learned the lesson from this movie got too big. Too many people had to weigh in every decision, and I cite it all the time in this podcast that you guys will pitch films as like, what is the budget number where if it's below this, you don't give us notes? Literally. Yeah, that's basically it. Where it's such a bargain that if we can get these actors, you'll just leave us back.

And to us now, it's the number where it's like, what is it, what's the number where they'll always be a bigger problem they have to deal with? Right. Like, as long as there's a more expensive movie going off the rail, they will, they'll just never get to They don't have the infrastructure. They have too many other holes to plug. It's just like six guys at this point. Yeah, exactly.

But they've been so smart about it where it's just like their two biggest movies are Hudsucker and True Grit. Hudsucker is their biggest flop. True Grit was their biggest success. But both of those still were like $50 million. Not out of control. They've just always kept it at a level

where like it allows them the hits and misses to all even out. It's so smart. Yeah. And they clearly shoot in an affluent. efficient way. They clearly plan everything. I mean, I remember even, yeah, I remember when this, I remember watching this. And it was so funny because it was like right when we were making all of our movies. I remember watching like all the behind the scenes features for it and see how they

like storyboarded every single shot of the movie. And I'd like never seen, I'd made four movies and never seen one storyboard my entire life. It was like, oh wow, that's like a really different way of making things. But you see a lot of it is so you can be efficient. And so you can shoot the stuff that has like scope in a very quick and cheap way. Right. Um, yeah, so what do you want to say about the big Lobowski? I think we pretty much said it all. Thank you all for a lot. No, no, no, no. So, okay. Starts as we said with, you're paying for the milk.

Well, we're pushing through. Oh, this stranger with L.A. Right, literal tumbleweeds. Try to see, so some sort of CGI looking tumbleweed Yeah. This is an early CGI movie. Early CGI movie. Like, like, I'm doing the dream sequences and stuff like. The dream sequence weirdly works so well as like a time capsule of screen saver aesthetics you know what else is good about it

Jeff Bridges is so locked in and he's so funny he's having so much he's incredible in this yes it is oh yeah I think Jeff Bridges gives a good performance in the Big Labowski no he's incredible and what is striking about watching it now is

actually how clearly he speaks right because I think the Jeff Bridges thing has gotten so accelerated right in what we talk about the fucking like billy goat gruff shooting on tin can yeah no he's very and he and his voice is sort of high is what's interesting is it's kind of whining yeah it's sort of like a what do you it's like a high exasperation which is has such a good take on how to play this guy that is not the obvious way of doing it which is this guy wants to believe he's not affected by anything and

yet he's very easily annoyed and he's very worked up about everything yeah right because the inciting incident is of course uh jacob from lost and another guy stealing his rug. That guy's always Jacob. Well, they piss on the rug first. They piss on it. And then they take it. Yeah, actually, it's a good point. Why do they piss on it before they steal it? Do they steal it? I don't think they steal it later. That's right. Right. They piss on it and they beat up.

No, they just pissed on it and they think he gets rid of it. Yes. Yes. Which they don't show. Yes. You're right. And they put his head in the toilet. And they really leave him in there for a while. I feel like that's the first time I clock that. And even still, that's sort of like a shrug and it's not until they get on the rug that he's like, come on, guys.

You're obviously not a golfer. And it's like, it's something, it's like, I remember when we were blocking, like the fight scene in Pineapple Express, like showing the fight choreographer, like, and it always loves such an impression on me when the guy's, like, rushing him to the bathroom when his bowling ball hits the door frame and it like shatter,

it like breaks off a chunk of the doorframe. It's just so awkward and weird. Yes. And again, like sets a tone for like a world where just like nothing's going right kind of in a weird. way. And I remember being like, they clearly did that on purpose. Yes. But it's such a cool little detail that

sort of shows like the sloppiness of all of this. The pineapple fight is so good in that same way where you're like, this is given the amount of space and time as if it is like a jet lease at piece. Yeah. And yet it is all just people who don't know how to fight in a shitty apartment causing collateral damage. The whole joke

was like how hard it actually would be to knock someone unconscious. Right. And so the fight the fight would just have to keep going. By the way, that's like what the Cohen said was their main impetus for Blood Simple. Is there like movies make it seem like it's really easy to kill someone?

Yeah, probably are. It probably takes hours. And people are just close to death for so long. So his rug is destroyed. He goes to his bowling alley. They clearly are looking for another guy. They're looking for the big LaBausie. And after like an amazingly cinematic opening sequence,

which I think is also like what's so interesting. At the bowling alley. falling out. It's such a good tone setting. It's so, like, indulgent in a weird way. And, but, like, shamelessly cinematic at the same time, I think. I love the Tum-Tum shot. Yes.

The guy who does the little, like, shimmy, yeah. But it's also, like, why this movie is centered in the world of bowling, right? It's like, this movie. Which is also why, like, to call this movie, like, thrown, like, haphazard is so crazy. It is crazy. It's so clearly composed. I agree with you. Like, they talk about it, like, right, like, just.

some like indie comedy that was made for $5. You have to like build special sets that like capture like that allow the camera to like pass through like the bowling ball machine like deacons wide lens shots but this idea of like the like Busby Berkeley

musical sequences with bowling alley dancers. This idea of like the middle age working man's like weekend sport or bowling so fucking funny. I love bowling. I really love bowling. I did it a ton as a kid because like it was a great thing to do. You couldn't to a bar yet.

I love going to the arcade in bowling alleys. Oh, yeah. Right. Still do. Yeah. I went to the gutter in Williamsburg. I go there all the time. It's like so shitty.

Like half the time the pin thing doesn't even work. And you have to be like, hey. And they're like, oh, sorry. And like, everyone is unathletic. Everyone looks like a complete dork. Like, especially in like the bowling world. Anyone who takes bowling seriously, bowling leagues. Like, they're all weird.

You kind of love them. Culture is permanently stuck in the 1960s. You're like, this is a late 90s. movie were all of the vibes of bowling. Like the aesthetic is like bowling series are like 1960s styles or literally. Am I wrong? Has anyone updated it since?

Even the shoes are so like just caught in that time. The culture is all stuck in like 1968. Well no, now there's like pins. Is that what it's called? There's sort of like hip bowling out. It's like the top golf of bowling kind of like okay. I don't know about this. They have them around L.A. I'm looking at it.

I was going to say. I feel like There's like, there's, like, cool singles bowling, but that's different than, like, people who make their life be built on. But I don't want that. Like, I want to go to a shitty bowling alley with stars and neon and, yeah, like, $2 beer. Drink shitty beer and exactly. Just sit, because, like, so much of bowling is sitting.

A lot of it, you're mostly not doing anything. Right. And then when you do your turn, you're like, how, right, how much do I, like, sort of shimmy or show off? It's probably, like, 40 seconds of stuff for every eight minutes of not. stuff. And so, right. So, and also that part of it is that, like,

when the most exciting thing happens, there's a good chance that no one's looking at it. No one's paying attention except you. That there's like two thrilling seconds. You see what I did? I'm eating mozzarella sticks. And you get to celebrate, which is a really fun part of bowling as you come back to your seat.

There's like a walk. There's like an organic sort of. You have an end zone dance. Yeah. So they go see the Big Lebowski. Now, I love that it's David Huddleston, who's just, like, a character actor guy that's in a... They wanted, like, Robert Duvall, who, like, read the script and was like, what the fuck is this? Like, they went to all these big shots for that.

That's really funny. Probably to stabilize it, because the whole point is that this guy isn't really important. Like, they asked, like, Anthony Hopkins. They wanted Jack Nicholson, Gene Hackman. Like, oh, that makes sense. But, like, I feel like it's perfect that he's this kind of... You can immediately understand that he's a loser. Yeah.

Right. I feel like I've seen the movie so much that, of course, I'd know. know he's kind of full of shit. But I feel like you know that right away. He doesn't have a rich face shop. He doesn't be particularly strong. No, right. Or imposing.

But he's like one of the guys in the boardroom in Hudsucker. You're like, even in a movie that is heightened, this guy is a, an affect of a wealthy, powerful person. Well, also, you meet Brandt first who sucks like a fucking blowhard. He's so funny. It might truly be the single greatest split three card in the history. of cinema. There is one card that is Philip Seymour Hoffman flee Leon

Russam. The great Leon Russam will place the sheriff at the end who is my beloved Pull the Corkman in True Gris. I love that guy. But I'm just like that the fact that the bench is so deep and this era of American cinema where it felt like there is a clearly identified

consensus pool of the 25 greatest character actors alive and in the second half of the 90s, in the early 2000s, the five best directors are all pulling from it. Yeah, all the time.

And you're like, the amount of overlap between like this and boogie nights, you know, like there's, yeah, it's true.

This pool of just like, hey, you know what, any movie that has some combination of, I know, this movie's missing through a Baker Hall.

Yeah. Right. Gilly and more. Yeah, you need them all. You're just, you're cooking with gas if you get six of these people,

even if they're only going to pop up for 20 lines. Like, they auditioned a murder's row for that role. I remember. I remember Paul Rudd auditioned for Brand. He told me he auditioned for Brand and he like performed for me what he did. And it was like the weirdest thing in the entire world. Did you see him perform it after having watched Phil. Yeah. So you're like he can't live up to this anymore. I was probably talking about how much I like that movie. He's like I auditioned for Brandt and it was humiliating and I made the weirdest choice in the entire. What did he do? He did. He was like he did this like weird like hello. And he like I just remember he had the thing. like weird like a cartoon butler like a like a cartoon butler like that guy from the cartoons who was

like yes yes right right why yes it is the magic of hoffman and our friend james urbaniac has talked about this but that he auditioned for an off-broadway play in the 90s and was just like got the audition was like this is my role this is a james urbaneac role post-henry fool who else is going to get this part and he doesn't get it and he's furious and he goes to see it opening night, and he comes out, and immediately, from the first second on stage, he's just like, this is the only guy who could have played it. He is making a choice I never would have considered, and it feels so bizarre and out of left field, and yet, it is, in retrospect, the only right choice.

And, like, he's taking big swings with this part. It's not like he's not doing weird shit. Oh, he's doing such weird. The weirdest part is when he repeats the line. Yes. And I could never. He resets? That I genuinely don't know if it's.

was supposed to be in the script or if he just did it. But it is, like, so weird and seamless. Because he doesn't even reset to the beginning of the line where it could be an edit point. He goes back four words. It's so weird. Or you're like, it wouldn't even help to have this. There was a movie I was going to be in, and then I didn't do it, and then he did it. And I remember, and I've talked to the director.

Cipode. No, it was that. It was called the boat that rocked. Yeah, yeah. than Richard Curtis. Yeah, and he wanted me to do it, and I couldn't do it, and then he got films Super Hoffman, and then I saw him after that. And I was like, you really lucked out.

And he's like, honestly, I did. He's like, I feel no remorse to tell him. He did a much better job than you would have done. He's a much better actor than you are. The movie turned out much better as a result of him having done that role. I do you just kind of think he's the best to ever do it. I think he's like the best screen actor of all time. And I think the argument for that is every single performance.

Oh, yeah. He wanted me to be in the movie he direct. The Jack Despoena? And I met with him and he wanted me to be the star of it, which was... To play the part he ended up playing? Yeah, and it was one of the most flattering moments of my life. Because it's like, yeah, I can see how... But I remember saying in the meeting to him, like, A, I would be honestly too scared to act for you every day.

Right. And B, you should do it. You are a better actor than I am. I was like, do you know you have actors? access to you? Are you aware that you... Is no one giving you your headshot? Have you been told

you're technically unavailable for this? Because I don't think you are. You should do this. You're the best actor. There's no better actor. And then he did it. Yeah. And was good.

You know what you're right. I have a better actor than you. Very advice. All your stories end up with someone being, by the way, I fucking crushed it. Yeah, exactly. You were right. Another thing in blank check lure I need to invoke.

Oh, what's that? You auditioning for James L. Brooks for How Do You Know? Was that for the Rudd Roll? Yes. I audition for the Rudd Roll. Wait, what is the, I don't know what this is. Well, it's a crazy story where I'll tell the story, but it's the greatest audition response I've ever. It's pretty funny where I've known Jim, Jim, as they call him, James L. Brooks.

I've known him for a while, and it's like one of the great gifts of my life that I know James all brooks like it's incredible i wrote a simpson's episode in once and he you know he was very helpful and he was amazing and he's come to our table reads and he's just jud got his start on the critic which was a james l brook show so he was sort of like in our orbit always um and so he called me when super bad came out he's like a huge fan like so he's making how do you know and he calls me in an audition process is like crazy you know and i go in and reese witherspoon is like there like she's already cast in the movie and for the audition we're like in his office which is at Sony, I think, at the time.

And he basically shoots the scene. And it's like a five-hour audition. We're like, we do a master. Calls me out of the room and gives me direction. We do another take. Are you just in an office? We're just in his office. Okay.

Sitting on a couch. We do another take. Calls me outside. He gives him more direction. He starts giving Reese direction. I'm like, she's casting out of what are you doing. But he needs like full simulation of what the day would be like. He wants a full simulation.

And so we spend, I'm not joking, five hours shooting this scene. And then I don't hear anything. Weeks, a couple weeks go by. And I'm like, maybe I'm going to do this movie. People are asking me what I'm going to do. I'm like, oh, maybe I got this part in the Jim Brooks movie, which is exciting. That I remember, I like, remember it so. I remember like where I was, I was like walking across the Stody lot where he also was.

It's where our offices were at. I got a phone call. And they were like, Jim Brooks calling for you. And I was like, oh, cool. And then, like, a minute, a second goes by, and, like, the first words out of his mouth are, he goes, not even close, pal. Not even close, pal. It's the greatest lines ever. Oh, my God.

And I was like, and I was like, what are you fucking talking about? I was like, it's been two weeks. It took you two weeks to get to not even close. But also, like, damn, this guy's a good writer. That's the right line. That's the best line someone could say in a James O'Rexam. movie. So funny. He's not even close, pal. It made me laugh so

hard. Did he then couch it at all, then go like, but I love you. No, no, he was funny. He was like, honestly watching it, I realize you're just too young. Right. He was like that, he's like, and that's what I've been wrestling with for the last few weeks is he's like, I liked what you did, but I keep just thinking maybe you're too young. And he cast Paul Rode, who

is, you know, 10 years old or something like that. But it's like, Seth, I have Jim Brooks for you online to not even close out. Literally, that was how it sounded. I have Jim, Jim, for you, cool. Not even close. Spout. It was legitimately

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You need them to see. My vision gets worse by the minute it feels like sometimes. But I just stopped wearing mine. Yeah, how's that going for you? It sucks. Yeah, see, this is the thing, Ben. What do you mean?

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wait how did we get to that uh it doesn't matter we're talking about brand the one thing i want to call out his laugh when she says i'll give you a blowjop for him is the most truly amazing i wish i could laugh like that like i could do that kind of like i want to kill myself laugh on command that's one of those lines i'm always i think there's almost like a Tourette syndrome that kicks in like when you realize you can quote the Big Lobowski if you're a fan you have to Like when someone, and I'm not proud of it, but it is something I find myself doing. And whenever someone says that someone's a nihilist, I say, oh, that must be exhausting. And people look at me like, I make no fucking sense in any way, shape, or form.

You're trying to speak the language. Yeah, I'm trying to speak the language. It's like what like Monty Python and the Holy Grail was, like this limited canon of movies where you're like, it truly has 1,000 lines that you can repurpose into any conversation. Yeah. The only thing I want to call out is in the meticulous sort of. mood setting of the bowling, you do get the introduction of the Jesus who is given the pomp and

circumstances if he is the Darth Vader of the movie. I mean, again, right, the fact that this movie is like, let's pause for a minute and do... Pause for a minute, six minutes in. Right, and do, right, a whole Eagles, like, underscore, you know, like, do the whole thing for the

Jesus. My favorite shot in the whole movie is the shot of John Tuturo having to knock on the door of the guy to explain he's a pedophile. And like, It is truly, and honestly, it is beautiful visual storytelling. Like, in Superbad, we directly reference it when there's a scene where McLevin's, like, explaining how he saw a girl in a thong in the hallway. Oh, yes, yes.

And, like, that is a direct, a direct rip-off of that moment in the Big Lebusti. The cutaway is something you could already imagine. Yeah, and that's very mundane, basically, and benign kind of. Yeah. That's already being very specifically explained in the first place. It's so funny. And him just being a little. dressed down that he knows he looks different you see like in the bowling alley he's a different

guy kind of like he's sort of like a cool cock of the walk in the bowling alley but in real life he's a he's a pedophile he is a year old suit eight year old suit but right like that it's like all these men who are losers god bless them like this is right this is where they're happy but also and like this is where they themselves it's a movie of self-styled like mythology right yeah everyone is like here's who i am you know my thing here's my reputation they are people, they are like sketch comedy characters in a real world. Smokey's a pacifist. Right. He's a pacifist. Everyone has their

emotional problems. Their bits and their look and they're just like, how dare you don't know my game? Right. What my thing is. And then like Donnie is this kind of blessed, he's like the fucking pinball wizard from Tommy or whatever where you're just like he's arguably, all he does throw strikes. The only

normal character. Right. But also it's like, bowling savot. It feels like you couldn't have a conversation with him like about anything. There's the reason. I just that he does not exist. Yes. Really? Because no other character in the movie addresses him.

We have this porch replica in our office, right? There's a replica of Ben's childhood porch that he used to watch movies on. We did an art show earlier this year. We built it as part of the installation. Very cool that you know what porch movies are. I know what some porch movies are. And then had it moved here to the office. The guys who came and installed it in the office that came in when they were finishing up

and they went, hey, what do you think about that theory that in Big Lobowski, Donnie isn't real? And I was like, what do you mean? And they were like, you know, you could go down this rabbit hole. There's this whole theory because only the dude and Walter ever reply to him that no one else ever acknowledges him. That'd be a weird shirred hallucination. In which he exists, right. When it dies, this funeral director gives them someone's ashes unless that guy's in on it.

It's why it doesn't make any. It's not a good theory. But I said to them like, oh, interesting. Yeah, we'll talk about that, I guess, when we do our Big Lobowski episode. And they went, oh, you're doing a Big Lobowski episode? And I went, why did you bring this up to me? And they were like, I don't know, we heard you liked movies. We heard you guys were in a movie.

By the proliferation of this film, right? That, like, two carpenters were just like, hey, you're a movie guy. Can I talk about Big Lebowski with you? That's the number one movie I want to talk about. Sure. Well, because it is this movie that has like a kind of an art movie. It has a mystical sense to it that you are like, what is it about? Is there something to solve here?

Watch it a hundred times. Yeah, it is like the weirdest cross-section between like an art. film and like of incredibly mainstream like comedy silly comedy yeah because like if I describe the plot of the Big Lobowski or attempt to it's like the rug gets stolen he he bugs the

Big Lobowski about it and then because that connection is made the Big Lobowski tries to use him to recover one that those guys because they thought he was the Big Lobowski he realized he can use this idiot to embezzle money to himself

the Big Lobowski right is stealing a million dollars from his own fun, yeah, and he's going to use and he knows his daughter keeps track of the money so he had to concoct a plot in order to account

for a million dollars that he's trying to steal. His young wife has gone missing on vacation but her nihilist friends have seized it as an opportunity to pretend that they're holding her ransom.

Meanwhile, he ceases an opportunity to launder his own money. Exactly, yes. To give it back to himself away from the fund that his stepdaughter actually managed.

The movie, Biological daughter? It is his biological time. What is the biological gap? But the dude is progressing through things one step at a time. So he's always like concerned about whatever. Like we lost the bag.

We need the briefcase. But obviously at no point does money change hands. At no point is there money for him to have. Oh, it's a briefcase full of phone books. At no point is Tara Reid in trouble. Nope. The only person who loses a toe is a nihilist and she doesn't care about anything. She sacrifices it.

She sacrifices it. But she's mad about it. The great Amy man. She is pissed off about it. Yeah. Yes, iconic, no dialogue, or she says pancakes or something. She was pancakes. And Walter says, I thought you guys were nihilist.

One of my favorite, one of my favorite things is, of course, that John Polito is watching all of this happen in another movie, essentially. And it's a pretty good movie over here. And he seems to be from like the 50s. One of the best gags of the Big Lebowski is the picture of the farm where he's like, we think it'll make her homesick and it looks like some fucking dust bowl picture. but also his pinto it's like this spectrum of like he's driven from another time everyone at the center of a story like this wants to think they are right polito is who they actually are

and lobowski is the guy who doesn't even want to be in it polito's so funny he's so fucking funny and god bless him the way his like whole like stance he's in when he thinks he maybe has to fight the dude really made me i mean one of the funniest things about polito in this movie right is also him just being like, are you a genius to the dude? And the dude's kind of like, yeah, maybe. In the Miller's Crossing episode, I was talking about how he, they didn't want to audition him for Miller's Crossing. Right.

Because they knew him as a pretty boy actor. Well, I was going to say, I was still like, I met John Polito. God bless this. God bless this. You people are more different from how they are. Oh, really? Was very even keeled. No.

He was like extremely flamboyant. Huh? He was a married. But like, an important. Incredibly, like, flamboyant games. Like, it's not, old-fashioned, like, a tough Italian. He was like John Waters. Yeah, like, he was like Harvey Firesteen, like, literally, like, in such a lovely, disarming way.

I think he'd audition for something we were doing. And, like, I just remember him, like, sort of like, perching himself, literally, like, on the end of the thing being like, what's the Duran? Like, like, it was, it was, it was adorable. Like, there's no better word for it. was absolutely adorable and I'd only known him from these movies. It only makes me love him more. You expect this guy to walk with me.

Hey, how's you doing? What are you doing? He was like, hello! What's your correction about John Polito? No, I said that he had been a pretty boy actor and they didn't want to audition him. They wanted him to audition for the Dane because when they had last seen him, he was very skinny

and had a lot of hair. And many people on the Reddit got upset. Because he never had hair. He never had hair. He was skinnier and a little like more. There is pretty boy Polito. You can find an earlier crime. movies. There's a tube he wears

in like two or three, but it's even a receding tube in his early 20s. But then he just, yeah, it's like one day he suddenly had this look and he was the perfect guy to play these characters that were so different than who he was. A big take on sort of the dude and Walter, right? Who are like, because like you watch

the movie enough, you kind of start to be like, why are they friends? And then you watch it more and you're like, they have to be friends. Like, they're essential to each other's like continued happiness, right? It's a yin and yang thing. They can't exist without each other. Walter he hates like what's happened to him

right he hates that the country isn't whatever he wants it to be right like Walter it's just like grievances everywhere that he basically lost his mind in service of a war that didn't matter and he lost his wife he became Jewish right he stayed Jewish right if you will it it is no dream calling theater Herzl

and he has the QAnon energy of like how are you guys not angry about this like everyone should be screaming at all times also the energy of like he here's one thing, and he's like, it must be true. Right? You know, like, where it's like, she connect herself is something the dude just idly think.

I can make the connections. The dude, like we all say, is actually kind of, like, does get kind of grouchy and does get, but he does have this vibe of like, he stopped caring about changing the world 20 years ago. Like, he was once, you know, a radical in the truth sense. He's given up at sea. And now he's like, can I just fucking chill out? But he's neurotic about his principle of trying to do as little as possible.

I know so many people like that. especially when I was younger, who were so aggro about how they had to chill out all the time. Where you're like, can you relax and they're like, I need to chill out. You're messing with that. Like, they would just always seem to be searching for some like sublime chill zone that they could not reach. Which takes so much effort, right? It's part of his branding of the thing. It's like, why does he drink white Russians?

It's because he needs to have a thing. Yes, he has a thing. He needs everyone to call him the dude except the way he dresses, what he drinks, how much he doesn't want to deal with this bullshit. it's like this very purposeful like I knew a guy in high school who was bathrobe man and it had that energy of he just wants to show up and be like oh this I don't even think about it yeah and you're like there is so much you put a lot into this

and I'm sure it was by the way directly influenced by it must have been yeah but he was just the guy who showed up to the parties with the bathrobe and yet every night he would be making out with someone incredibly hot yeah and I'd just be like how does fucking bathrobe man do it and he just sold the narrative of what he represented strong enough in a way that when you're 15 people buy

and the like the dude exists in a universe where people can see through it enough because he's at an age where it's no longer cute. So I can't do the go through the plot scene by saying because we'd lose our minds. But like the threads are like

Julianne Moore as this kind of performance art but also visual art kind of a Frazier Crane mid-Atlantic accent. Did you know, what were you going to say? I was just going to say, like, for whatever reason, one of the most, like, one of the lies that always stuck in my head and was always so funny to be. And again, it's something I think as we were writing was very inspirational is when David Thulis is there. That's who I was going to bring out.

And he just keeps laughing. And it's a line that has its own dedicated shot as well, which is just when he's standing next to David Thulis who's in the chair. And he goes, who the fuck is this guy? It's so funny. It's the only shot. There's one shot for that line. It never goes back to that shot. It's just a weird wide shot where you see the dude like head to toe standing next to the sky.

It's almost a meta joke of him saying like, do I need to learn another character this late in the story? And let me now tell you the thing I was going to say, which is they wrote that whole scene without that character. And they were like, this is kind of a lot of exposition. It's boring. What if a funny guy was sitting in the chair, too? And what if you got like... Like, let's add a weird British, you know, guy. Like, the most of the greatest actors are right.

Coming off of fucking Mike Lee's naked. Is it like, you're sitting in the chair and be, you know, giggles, he's like a whole fucking weirdo. Did you see, Seth, did you see the reveal? And this goes to Ben as well. David Thulis is an Avatar three. He is. Yeah.

He is a character that James Cameron has promised has a small part in three, but he's, it's the long play. And he's really going to pay off in four and five. Great. And they posted a photo of David Thulis Navi, and I just sent it back to Sims, propped close up on the lips, and I went, they got the Thulis mouth right. They got

it. James Cameron. The Navi has those Thulis mouth. Span him around in a gyrosome. It's got $200 million Weta didn't sleep for months, but they cracked the Thulis mouth. They got his weird, first lips kind of. Maude, apart from like, knowing her dad is

full of shit, knowing her, like, stepmother is full of shit. Like, she also wants to get Jeff, the big, the dude's sperm. She wants a child, but she wants a child that she has no relationship to the body father of, to put it in the... So is it just that like Jeff Bridges walks into rooms and people are like,

you are Jeff Bridges. It is, this is the thing. I like that this would be acknowledged is that even though Jeff Bridges in 1998 is clearly putting work into trying to look worse. Trying to. He still is Jeff Bridges. He still looks great.

He's got the greatest eyes in the world. His hair's great. Fucking cool looking. It just looks cool. Right. And she's just like, why not? This guy will never show up, and that's what I'm looking for. Right. It's like, he's the perfect mix of, like, good looking tall, but also, right, would never bother me.

And then, like, what are the other threads? It's like, you know, Ben Gazzerra for one scene is the great Jackie Treehorn. He doodles himself with a giant cock. The funniest, I mean, maybe the funniest line to me after rewatching the movie is when they go to the guy's house. They find the paper in the car and they go to the kid's house and the father. and like the iron lung who is not even the creator but he wrote a lot of episodes

of branded right right and he goes does he write still and the lady goes no he has health problems but even just the co-in motion of walking into the house seeing the iron lung before you can

even make out there's a person in it his little head suit immediately going that's him that's him and brand is like a real fucking gun smoke also ran it's like a shitty gun smoke, exactly, that ran for like, you know... That was like more racist.

It was called branded because it was about like fighting the Native Americans. Oh my gosh. I think it was pretty racist. Yeah. And did they use the branded theme song later? Yes, I think so, right? It's the first time I noticed it was this time.

Does he write still? I mean, imagine again, you're a critic at the time. You're again, you're here. Like, you saw Fargo, right? And like, because that scene is like an hour 45 into a two-hour movie. is do you see what happens when you fuck a stranger They have never made a very long film

All their movies are under 210 Yes Almost all their films are under an hour, 45 minute Like there's only a couple that are even longer And like I can imagine being baffled by like Wait, why do I need to watch this now? Like, you know, Walter going insane Where is this going?

And it doesn't go anywhere And you're like, the answer is the kid stole the car that sucked That got back to him And the briefcase is missing which never had money in it anyway Right, so it doesn't matter Well, I think that's the answer is they really, where it goes is you kind of can see that that kid, that there was nothing in the car, nothing about it in the car. The kid doesn't answer and maybe if he had, if he had kept money, he would have been more protective and defensive even if he was not speaking. Like that's the thing about the Big Lobowski.

Like the scene where the dude explains it to the two cops is so funny. So fun. It doesn't. Right. They're like, good luck with that buddy. Right. That wraps up the case of that. They say that we're like, we'll have to take shifts on this one.

You guys got any leads? Leads. Leads. They got us working in shifts. Yeah. And like all those scenes like are like ultimately you're like when you pull the movie apart. Like yeah, this is all meaningless or whatever. It's in service of nothing. It's them colliding their own plot with reality from time to time.

Like it's them acknowledging that. What are you what to do? that it's all so trivial and that like the cops don't care no one cares is not important the ultimate joke that the nialists are the only people at the end of the movie who are like where's our money

because they care deeply we have body sacrifice where the fuck is our money in a way I think it is the most pointed thing in this movie because of course the storm air of course we haven't mentioned it right after yeah the doctor from funny people

Yeah, the big tall guy. Yes. He was great. Yes. That's a real, like, a treat every time I go back and watch this film again, post funny people. Yeah. In funny people, we literally, like, cast that man so we could make fun of him. Right.

We just do the run of, like, it feels like a diehard guy. It feels like a cheat in movies where you like, you do a thing and then make fun of that. It's a man. Is Dan Harmon's joke about, right? Is it East Ventura, too? It's Ace Ventura when nature calls. Where the guy, he's like that looks like a monopoly guy. He's at a party.

does, yeah, he actually and you cast him, you picked him to be. That's Harmon's bit. That's the joke. You don't get to make me think that your character is clever from making a joke about a guy

you cast that style this way. That's what that's a week. It's fucking funny. But then I love that and funny people, he gets the joke back. Yes, he got like, I get it, yes.

To speak to the stoner thing that we were saying before with the nihilists and the avant-garde artists, I love how in this movie it's like not making the joke about how they're weirdos I like that they just kind of exist

I really I think as a kid I really appreciated that as I was like getting interested in being like a weirdo is quote unquote a weirdo or on like the fringe of society no one is nor except for the occasional cops who will freak out of Malibu

once I was arrested by the sheriff of Malibu in the real one for smoking weed And the whole time, it's funny, we were, like, smoking weed on the beach in Malibu. What year was this? 2000. So weed was still pretty illegal in L.A. And we were smoking weed on the beach,

and we kept joking that, like, we were a little big Lebowski fans. We were like, oh, the Sheriff of Malibu's going to get us. Look over to the Sheriff of Malibu. And then, like, literally, like, next thing, there's flashlights point out of us. They're like, oh, no, they actually got us. Stay out of my beach community.

Stay out of my beach. That then with the, I really hate the fucking Eagles, right after that. It's such a great like in another movie this is like a really low point for him. And like that's the dude's actual lowest point.

He has to listen to the Eagles after getting our cup. Another thing we stole for Pineapple Express was and like I think I remember showing our stunt person was when he gets the mug thrown at his head.

And there's there's a scene where I don't know how they did that. There's just a rubber mug with a sound. I guess so. Like there's a scene where I get a where someone throws an ashtray at my head.

Yes, that's right. And it's like I remember we showed them that. We were like, we want it to look exactly like this. Like, we want it to look in, just like how when I watched that, I was like, oh, like, that's what we want is for that exact thing to happen. The thing that for me makes that moment land so hard, and I don't understand how he does this on a performance level. It's like Bridges is reacting on a two-second delay. Yeah, yes, yes.

It doesn't feel like mistiming. It feels like this guy is so stone that it takes a little bit longer. for his body to communicate with itself. You know who lives in Malibu? Ironman. And Jeff Bridges didn't like him either. No, he didn't like him either. He's got a long-storied history.

You know who else lives in Malibu? Be rad. Be rad from Malibu's Most Wanted. A film he wants accused Ben of liking? One of the rudest things you've ever said to me. When Ben is like five drinks in, he'll be like, do you remember that fucking time Sims assumed I liked Malibu's Most Wanted? Once I was at a, I used to do these like writers roundtables

where you'd punch up a movie. and I was punching up. He was for Big Mama's House, too. Sure. Job done. Exactly. And we were in like a production office, so there's all these posters on the walls.

And I was with my friend Jenny Connor, who's a writer. And she, like, to the table was like, you know, it's always a red flag when you come into a fucking production office and the poster for Malibu's most want to be on the wall. Put that one up.

And the director. of Big Mama's House too when I directed that movie and it rocks he was yes he was very insulted that is really funny I just think it is one of the funniest

franchises because the setup of the first Big Mama is he's got to dress like this woman this specific woman right via long needs to be monitored so you have to dress up as her mama right and go undercover as her gray down or whatever it's supposed to be right

and then two in three, two is once again. It's about jewel thieves or something. Yes, you need to go undercover at like a women's college to bust a jewel thief. Maybe you should whip out that old mama cop. You got that mama suit. We invested $500,000 in that mama suit. He's now married to Nealong. He's adopted her son, right?

And it's like, and I'm going to just go out and pretend to still be your mama. Big Mama three is, hey, Neil Long, son, it's time you take up the family business, pretending to be mama. Not just dressing up as an old lady, but like... Specifically mama. Mama is important to an American crime taking down these rings. Mama works. Mama plays.

Mama's effective. I want to say, to Ben's point, especially at this point in time, the Coen brothers get hit a lot with this idea, this criticism, especially from their skeptics of like, are they just fucking nihilists? They put a bunch of dumb characters on a board. They make fun of a... time movie in which nothing matters and people die and everything was kind of pointless and they're mocking everyone and the nihilists in this movie are the only characters who are like doing something right who like have the only ones who care right are trying so hard to sell the idea that they don't care and have other people repeat the idea that they don't care and that's their defining characteristic and yet they're willing to like fucking lose toes to make money they just want money is right which i think like it's they want to make another record?

Like, is that what they want to do? Right. But in the name of what you're, like, what we're saying of, like, this is a movie that feels like the Coen Brothers were willing to die to make. It's a movie about, like, no, we like all these people. We find these characters interesting. These movies are not condescending. We are not nihilists.

Nialists are kind of like broken. Yeah. Right? If you actually don't care about anything, what are you covering for? No one just naturally doesn't care about anything. And that this movie is a bunch of people who have their own things they want to do. And they're all just fighting each other for how to get to it. But all of them are just like, I want to be seen as this philanthropist.

I want to be a performance artist. I want to be the ultimate chiller. You know, I want people to view me as an American hero. You know, Jesus wants to be the greatest bowler rather than the greatest pederess. Sure. Like, everyone has this sort of sense. I get that. I mean, it's so sweet.

It's so sweet at the end that Walter starts talking about Vietnam. Like, obviously, it's sad that he can't let it go. and it's weird, it messes up Donnie's sad little funeral, and the dude justifiably gets mad at him. But you do feel for Walter that he's like, I don't understand why bad things have happened to me. It's the great Vietnam thing of this. Like, young men were told they had to do this thing

that then, like, the world said, like, this was bullshit, and it never should have happened. And you're like, so what were my scars for? And then, like, the movie ends with the stranger, like, you know, being like, hey, how are you doing? And the dude's like, the dude abides. I'm chilling out. And you do feel a comfort in that.

And the stranger being like, it's nice, right? I guess it's good. It's comforting knowing this guy that's out here. And then like, you know, another little Bowski's on the way. So it's sad Donnie had to die, but like, you know, life keeps moving on. And like, I feel like it's a hopeful movie. Oh, yeah. It's meaningless. It didn't, it had nothing to do with the plot mechanation.

Well, maybe he got a little worked out. They think he was shot. No, I know. Yeah, no. Right. People think he was shot? I'm saying in the moment. Oh, he was shot.

seen their like, well, he also missed for the first time. And then he's sort of fucking with his hair, like, he certainly, he knows he's off. He knows there's something going on. Something's going on. Bishimi's so good in this. Oh, he's so good. Like, just the, the joke of them being like,

Bissimi, sorry. I always support. Like, of them being like, you won't have any dialogue in this movie, basically. And him being like, yeah, that's fine. I'll still create, like, a character. You'll talk a lot, but you'll never be heard. Right.

You know, like the opposite of fire. You're going to yell that all the time. So good. And it's kind of like, visible like yeomen's work because you're like the point is to do the thing that feels like it doesn't matter. It's also amazing in comparison to what he just

had done in Fargo. We're like he doesn't shut the fuck up. Right. He's like a fucking rad of tat tat, tat tat energy that like yeah, dominates the entire movie. Reservoir Dogs was a few years before that. Like he started known for being this like smarter than everyone, kind of

more clever than everyone. He's usually kind of playing the Walter, the guy who is getting so worked up about it. Yeah. Angry. aggressive in a comedic way. But yeah, in this, that he's just sort of like the dopey guy who's a step behind all the time. It's so good. Have you ever worked with Goodman?

I was trying to do this calculation in my head. I don't think I've ever met John Bush. He feels kind of hard to, like, pin down in a way. Yeah, like Bride got him. Right. He's had him for years. Bride got his ass. He's doing great work with him.

Yeah. But no, he to me was like, honestly, like when I started acting, he's one of those people I looked at as like, go like he's like evidence I could perhaps be a professional actor. I know in this rewatch it's why I wanted to ask you this I was like is he quietly

a humongous influence on you as an actor? Absolutely and like really was was what channeled and it's funny because for years I wanted to be Jonah in Superbad or the Seth role in Superbad and my take on it was very much derivative of Walter like teen Walter what the fuck just screaming at people

what are you talking about just kind of of always so angry that like no one's quite on my rhythm or or like following what I want wish everyone was following and and Jonah found honestly what was probably like a much more endearing way of doing it than what I imagine I would have done but it was very inspired by John Goodman and I loved him and like Rosanna I was a huge fan of and thought he was so funny and you know King Ralph I was a big friend hey we just did a big King Ralph live show and tribute of Ben's respect for the king. I like that movie. Yeah.

It's a funny movie. The whole royal family dies in the opening. Nothing funnier than that fucking funny is the most good bit. Yeah, it's a pretty good bit. David, in your, I don't know if you know about David's brackets. Your brackets. Or his spreadsheets. I'm sorry. Okay. But that David has

spreadsheets for every years of the movies he has seen and what he would nominate in every category at the Oscars. Amazing. You gave Goodman two best supporting actor wins, right? It's this and Barton Fink. Correct. I think those are just...

Martin Fink's not a movie I particularly respond to. Interesting. Yeah. I've seen it in a long time. That's because you've bent Hollywood to your... Exactly. I honestly think it's what I don't... I honestly think I just don't fucking get it.

Like, I don't think I get this movie. I love Barton Fink, but I do have him, yes, as my best supporting actor of 1998. That is absolutely the case. He's incredible in both of them. They both feel like they should be like, if not career. cappers, because obviously it had so much more work to do, but, like, congratulations, we acknowledge you. And it's just crazy

that we're, like, 30 years later, and he still remains, like, one of the most grossly un-nominated, not just for Oscars, but you're like, he won one Emmy for fucking Studio 60 on the Sunset's strip? That's the only time they ever gave it to him. John Connor? He never won for Roseanne. He's so

good on this stuff. He's always incredible. He's the best. I mean, we love Roseanne. We love, like... It's why the Conner's still rip. Yeah, it's like, he's so amazing on that show. But you watch this and you're just like, this is an astonishing performance that I was about to say

no one else on the planet could do, but Mel Gibson could do it in a way that would... Mel Gibson could have done it pretty well. Changed laws earlier. The fucking look on his face after he rolls out of the car and the Uzi goes off and it's just like him kind of deadpan looking off in the distance. It's so

funny. He is so good every time he has to admit he's wrong. but won't do it, but kind of will just sort of like go quiet. He kind of doesn't carry it. Whatever, dude. Fuck it. Yeah, it's like, he instantly diminishes his own failures in media. Like, right away, he's able to write off his own shortcomings.

But the idea, like, when he does his big outfit change into the sort of like covert military fatigues, right? He's been doing his sort of like flack jacket, like full milliest thing. And now it's like, we're on a secret mission. I need to be still. And then going to the sort of businessman mode at the end. And this is what happens when you fuck a

Stranger in the ass is like one of the all-time great comedic scenes in a movie. And also one of the great weird TV censorship edits of all time. What do they say? The cable version of this movie and that line gets repeated so much is this is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps, which is weird as a one-off statement. But what he has to say it 10 times, it's insane. It starts feeling hallucin the tour. It's funny because, right, this I guess is a cable classic.

Yeah. But I think of it is also this is what happens when you find a strange. in the Alps. That's pretty good. As he punches a kid. That's good. Like, it's a DVD classic to me. Like an early DVD, right?

Like, this was a movie everybody has a DVD. It's part of the proliferation of what you're saying of like there wasn't a big canon of Stoner movies. This movie is like cresting at a point where it's like DVDs are cheap, available. Every college student has a player because they either have a video game system or a computer or a TV or whatever it is. And this movie's on Comedy Central all the time. It's on basic cable.

There's, like, theaters that are doing, like, Lobowski night and shit like that, like, right away. It's like they're serving white Russians, showing up in robes and shit. Like, that was happening a lot. My other favorite TV edit line is, of course, Scarface, we're in the original, the first interrogation.

They go, how do you get that Scar big guy? And the line in the movie is eating pussy. And the line in the cable edit is eating pineapple. And I like it because there is an internal logic to it. Sure. You're like, you could, you could get as good. You just shoved your face in a one. If you didn't eat it right.

Before we played the box office game. We used to spend a lot of time on those. Yeah. So Kelly Clarkson, you said it was basically designed to be in the movie, though. We used to, but I remember we used to, we would steal one from, I remember Melon Farmer was from, I think, diehard maybe. Like, I grew up watching John McLean saying Yippee Cayenne Melan Farmer. Yes. And that's in Pineapple Express.

So in Pineapple Express. But I actually think, I actually think we put it in the actual movie. Like, I think Danny just said. Melon Farmer in the actual movie itself. But yeah, we would try to get really creative. I was like,

right, because like, four-year-old virgin knocked up these are movies where I was like, I can't believe it. The freaks and geeks guys are making movies.

This is great. Pinetininplex Express was like, did this escape from a lab? Like, that was a little bit more like, I can't believe this is allowed. I, like,

we felt the exact same way. It's like a summer movie with a budget. We're like, we could have like machine guns through the franchise system. I watched tricks and geeks like on broadcast on NBC. That's crazy. which took so much effort to track down where it was moving.

Because it changed nights like three times. And even the summer burn off with the last couple episodes. Yeah, they was off for three weeks and they came back. And I was like, yeah, catching like episodes I'd missed on Fox Kids going to the fucking Paley Center, then the museum and television and radio to be like, I think I haven't seen four. It's so crazy. You know, Kim Kelly never aired. Then I get that yearbook DVD, my like freshman year of high school. And it's finally I have control.

I can rewatch it when I want. Also in high school. with the commentaries of the context and all that that also in high school I get so into David Gordon Green in those first three movies and when in like 2008 it's like there is an action comedy directed by David Gordon what the fuck are you talking about like I had the same reaction David where I was like this is actually just impossible

it was weird it was very weird yeah but honestly we wanted them to be artful movies and part of us were like the obvious version of Pineapple Express it's just like a dumb stoner get the director of Malibu's most yeah exactly literally and we were like we were big George Washington fans and we loved all the real girls and we were like oh what if we got

sort of like a fancy indie guy to make this like all the real girls again that's what I mean we're just like who allowed this like yeah all the real girls the answer is Amy Pascal yeah and what's funny to her credit she let us make the movie she let us hire whoever the fuck we

we want it they never came to set they never said anything we were at the first test screening for the movie. And like, it played and tested very well. And there was like a moment early on where it's just like annihilating. And Amy is sitting beside me. And she turns to me and she goes, now I get this movie. And I was like, now you get it ever got it. We spent $25 million on this. We're at the test screening. And like, to her credit, she just trusted us. And she was like, I assume I'll get it eventually. And she did. We talk about her a lot on this podcast. Because I think especially for us covering the 2000s and the 2010s of studio filmmaking and when sort of blank check movies were able to come out of these careers, you're just like, she was the one studio head where you can look at her and you're like, she took chances on people.

She like developed movie stars. She identified people in places that people wouldn't have assumed you could take this person there. Yes. And would just be like, I want to make things that are artful and commercial at the same time. Yeah. And actually, it's like exactly the opposite of how movies are made now, basically, which is, yeah, she would believe in an idea or a person and, and allow them to go make a movie without every element being a sure thing, basically. If we own Spider-Man, that gives us the latitude to be able to incubate some side projects and to make like a $20 million movie, and we're also making Men and Black 2 this year. Right, right, right. So it'll be fine.

Yeah, exactly. It'll ultimately be men and Black, too. I mean, no problem. Oh, so that one. Great movie. Galchinians. You kidding me? Old timer. I did another at Comic-Con. I did another like 10 drinks in.

Can I tell you the pitch that Sims and I had for Men and Black 2? Yeah, sure. This is like a formative moment in Sims and I's friendship. We were at a bar. We broke the story. Men and Black 2 was playing on a par. It was years before we had the podcast. And we were like, is there any version of this that works?

And was there? We came up with them we thought it was pretty good. The whole problem with Men and Black 2 is that undoing Tommy Lee Jones's triumph at the end of minute by 20. It's hard. Like, it just kind of fucks up the movie to begin with. You want him to have his happy ending. So our answer was the movie is that he's basically Chavon

Fallon Hogan. That Jay is missing his partner. He gets told that an alien crashed and he needs to interrogate the witness. And the witness is the neuralized Tommy Lee Jones who's happily married. And it's like, I don't believe in aliens. That's a great idea.

That would have been good. And they get to team up and he's like, I'm here with my best friend again who doesn't remember me, but I don't want to neuralize him because I'm enjoying the time we're spending together. And it's like midnight run. It's them in three days trying to solve the case, and the one guy's a skeptic. I guess, I mean, like, the problem with men and black, too, is instead, it's just

like, go in this room, okay, you're telling me. You're back. You're back. But also, it's it's important. It's that the movie starts and they show up and he's like, my wife left me. Yeah, working at the post office. Fuck, man. Jesus. Why don't, you know, we fought for this? Yeah, anyway, men and black one, great movie. Should we do

final thoughts? Yes. Anything else we want to say about Bigel Baskin before we play the box office game. I want to shout out Dom Aerara. Oh, he's really funny as just a little tiny cameo. He plays The landlord? The limo driver. The limo driver. Oh, the limo driver, that's right. The landlord is also, he was in some other

movie. The landlord's name is Jack Keller. And he's in a ton of stuff, but he's so fucking funny. He's in, um, he's one of the guys in the Austin Power Spy Who Shagmi Run of Dick Jokes. He's the guy, I can't remember which one, he's in the I probably have the card. And to me that little joke is also like

so reminiscent of like being like in Los Angeles friends with people are like you're gonna go to this weird show. He's gonna dress up and leave. But you know what's a great character detail? They go. That they go. That he goes and that he's eager to go. That like that's a great bridge's choice.

Yeah. That he doesn't play it as like oh yeah, I'll go to that. He's like yeah, man, absolutely. Yeah. And then they go. And they're not making, and like it clearly sucks, but there's not, they're not making fun of it. They're not leaving your eyes. They're just happy.

They're totally happy to support him. You learn so much about the dude from the fact that he is the one guy who wants to go see his landlord's creative side. He's also, yeah, he's eager to do it. He's also, like, appropriately horny, if that makes sense. Like, he responds to all of the horniness coming at him with the right amount of hornyness. Yes. He's not overly horny or underly. Right.

But also kind of, like, overwhelmed. Like, he's just kind of like, it all sort of happens to him. Yeah. Yeah. Might be Tara Reid's best performance. Oh, she is great in it. Yes. She beat out.

Heather Graham for the role, which makes sense, I guess. Heather Graham just spent boogie nice. Obviously, the gag of the chair falling down, like him building the thing to block the door from the door. And then he's the wrong way, yes.

I know it's simple, but I think about it all the time. It's a funny joke. Same with Treehorn drawing, like, the trick thing is one of the weirdest jokes. It's such a good encapsulation of the movie of like, ah, a clue. A clue. No, no. It's just bizarre. Nothing. Nothing matters.

But also, like, I will say, my mother always had a notepad near the phone growing up, near the landline. My mom did too, of course. And I would look at it afterwards, and, like, 5% of the time it was something that someone said. It was just doodling. Most of the time it was doodles. And you're like, this guy would just doodle himself with a boner. That's what he would doodle. It doesn't mean anything.

Oh, God. And it's like the one time the dude does something smart. Right. He, like, notices that the one time. He's going to put it. He doesn't realize he's being braced. He couldn't do something again. It goes into like Hitchcock vision for five seconds where he's putting the pieces together.

Like, look again. I also just love that like all the wind up on Jesus is just to do the payoff at the end of him being angry that they still showed up at the bowling alley in the night they said they couldn't bowl. Yeah, exactly. You just expect that for some reason this guy is going to factor into the plot in a major way at the end and he could not be more relevant. Has anyone seen the like Jesus spin-off movie? I'm scared a lot. Seth, literally no one has ever seen. Literally no.

John Totoro didn't see it, yeah. The weirdest thing about that. He was directed with his eyes closed. It's so crazy, like Pete Davidson and John Hammer in it. Really? Yeah. It's got like 10 big people. Because like Terturo's friends with people.

And it's like, yeah, making a movie. I hate to say, if they asked me to be in it, I probably would have said, yeah. The weirdest thing is that it's like, it's a side quote to Lubowski where he basically went. Because I think the story is that he used to do this character. He would do like character monologues as a version of. He was in a play and, like, sort of had done something like this, and he was like, that's what I'll do. They were inspired by that, and then they sort of, like, write it in. And then he was, like, sort of, since I kind of made the characters, like, cool if I do something.

Well, I think the coins are also, like, the dude showing up to his landlord's. They're like, yeah, man, what do we can. That's their attitude with the Fargo show and everything. They're just like, you do what you want to do. It's fine. Right. We're not afraid that our movie will be, like, corrupted by this. But for years, it would, like, he'd mentioned in interviews and people would be like, oh, there's going to be a Lubowski sequel.

John Totoro's going to write and direct a Labowski sequel, assuming it's a more straightforward thing. And then it's like, no, he wants to remake a 70s French Girard Depardue sex comedy. Oh, is that what it is? It's this movie Going Place. It's about a competition to see who can get laid more.

But it's about eight-year-olds. That's the other thing. The movie I think makes him like, he's a pedophile. I think ignores that part, which then you're like, then what is the guy? Yeah, I know one thing about him. Right. Two, he likes bowling, he's a pedophile. He likes bowling and children.

Yeah. Eight year olds, dude. This film came out March 6, 1998. Last thing. Gotta shout out the Dylan song. Yeah, the band. So good. To your earlier point of like, right,

songs getting repeated or repurposed, this is a weird pace of a movie that uses all songs that are not obscure and yet feels like it claims ownership of that. For sure. Right? Like, it has that kind of like. What condition my condition was in? Yeah, the man in me for sure.

But does the risky business like old time rock and roll thing eight times where you're like, well, that's now the song from the Big Lobowski, a song that had a reputation for decades? Like mariachi version of Hotel California. Well, does it really like, it is like a 90s Scorsesian or Tarantinoe and maybe they're the same thing type thing where it is like shamelessly aggrandizing

of a character using needle drop and and shots in slow motion and and and I love it and it's something we do again it's like we we do that like when Danny McBride shows up and this is the end like I literally remember showing RDP the sequence from the Bigelps it's like this

it's like a musical interlude to introduce a new guy and we are like shameless about it like it's perfect it's like you copy what works like yeah steal from the best all right March 6 Griffin 1998 I don't know if that was the right I don't know if there was a right time to release this movie

Doesn't really feel right, but I don't know. Spring break. Yeah. But this is, right, this movie needed to exist in order for people to understand how it could exist. It had to be the first. Yeah. I was taking a hit no matter what. Right.

It opens to like $5 million, number six at the box office. It's released by Gramercy Pictures. And like, you know, makes, what does it make? 18 million dollars. It's a big flop and yet no one lost their shirt on it. because they always kept their budget small. And also probably so like 4 billion DVDs. Now I am sure it is one of the

10 most profitable movies in the Universal Library. At this moment in time like any movie made like 30 to 40 million dollars on DVDs basically like if it's a movie you've heard of it made 30 million dollars. And this one possibly made like 300. Yeah. What's number one of the box office Griffin? It's been number

one for three months. Fuck. It's Titanic. It won't be knocked off for another month. For three months. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? fucking nuts. It's just like, yeah, forget it. Lost in Space comes out in April, end of April. Lost in Space is the movie that knocks it off. Oof, I saw that on Shrooms.

That's not a good one to see on Shrooms. You're going to turn into a spider monster. It was a lot scarier than we thought it. Exactly. It's like dark and metallic. I remember we were like, this is a mistake. So Man in the Iron Mask and Spice World come out in January and February, and those were the two that people thought could

dethrone Titanic. They're gone. At this point, it's like Titanic. I saw all these movies in the first. You got four new releases in this top 10. Big Lobowski is the lowest of them. So number two at the box office is a sequel to a huge action movie. Undersea. U.S.

Marshalls? Great movie, but no, it is U.S. Marshals, which is a bad move. Yeah, yeah. With Robert Johnny Jr. With Robert Johnny Jr. With like, can we do the fugitive without Harrison Ford just have Tommy Lee Jones chase a new guy? Wesley Simes.

Right. With Robert Johnny Jr. Robert Johnny Jr. is the bad guy or kind of like the... He's like the third bonnet farm. He's like the assistant. He's like, Tommy Lee Jones is like new, he's the new Jolie Pan.

That's Robert Downey Jr's like, I don't, I was not conscious while. Yeah, he's like, this was like a heroin fever dream. And you're like, this is still maybe 1000s before me.

You still kind of crush every line your throat. Because that's the whole thing where I, like, Ali McBeal was like one of the first times I was exposed to him and I was like, this guy's a genius and he's like, no memory of ever being a good show.

Do not know I did that. I thought I was in Bulgaria. Okay. Number three of the box office, great movie, comedy hit. Okay. Big star, kind of early in his run. Yeah, for sure. I've been out for a month.

Early 98, so it's a February 98 release. Sure. Yep. It's made $47, $57 million is going to make $80. It's going to end up at $80. Yes. February. And it's like the start, it's not the start of this guy's career.

He's been around. It's an Adam Sandler movie. It's like Big Daddy or something. It's Wedding Singer. It is kind of, that is the level of. Wedding Singer is kind of like Sandler, like, it's like, yeah, not just dumb. Yeah, it's like good. I mean, I love Happy Gilmore and Billy Madison or whatever.

It was like, oh, he can kind of do like something with some drama. I think probably his like best reviewed. Yes, it was. It was kind of the crossover because it was like, oh, he can be a viable romantic lead. He's playing a little bit more. It's like the first one they like sort of take seriously a little bit in any capacity. It's a good movie. But it's like, Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore received similarly.

Then this was sort of like the guy's got emotion. And then six months later. Waterboy comes out Waterboy is October 98 and then Big Daddy's God he was fucking crushing He was on fire Yeah he was on fire

He still is He is more on fire than ever before He might be winning I was out with his ease and we were having dinner And we were like We were talking about Adam Sandler And we just like our waitress was like You know like a 25 year old woman

And we were like Who's your favorite community? comedian, Adam Sandler, right away. We go to, like, the coacher. Who's your favorite comedian? And it's almost, it's not, it's almost like they don't know there's another one. And like, like, being in the Z's like, uh, like, you're getting asked this question by two famous comedians and you don't even think of naming them out of politeness.

You don't even, they didn't even consider it. They're just like, oh, Adam Sandler, fuck you guys, not even close. Do you know what the other part of it too is like, he's the kind of guy where, like, who's your favorite comedian, Eddie Murphy? And you're like, yeah, Murphy's like an actor who does comedy. movies now. He's not like generating comedy in the same way. Sainler does comedy again. And he's still so funny. That special is so good. He's so funny. He's done three specials

in the last 10 years? Yeah. And they're so funny. They're amazing. Sandler's the man. Yeah, he's the best. Number four. Yeah, number four, also new hard-boiled neo-noir thriller with gigantic movie stars that is now remembered for only one thing. It's not 8mm. Mellometer. It's remembered for one thing. Is a thing memeified in it? It's a thing that his character knocked up would know. It's, okay, so it's got a nude scene. Yes.

Yes. Okay, two giant stars, early 98. Three giant stars. Is it Twilight? Yes, three Academy Award winners. Reese Wetherspoon gets naked in it is what's the only thing. Who's in it? Paul Newman, Gene Hackman, Susan Sarandon.

Whoa. Directed by Robert Ben. Right, the guy who made Kramer versus Kramer. Yeah. But David is correct. The only reason I know that movie exists is because Rees Wetherspoon gets fake. It's because in 2003, I googled Reese Wetherspoon Nude. and there was only one result.

I mean, it's also got like Stalker Channing and like John Spencer. Lots of great actors. Yeah, yeah. I don't know this movie. I don't know what it's about. It's like a, what's it called? Twilight. Yeah, that's the other thing.

It's now ungoogle. Yes, you know nothing about it other than the fact that I've seen one scene from it 200 times. For 200,000 times. I know that's seen very well. It's funny because like Gene Hackman was a guy they wanted for the big Lobowski and he was like, I'm kind of not making movies right now. And it's literally opening against a hack.

And Twilight was a bigger hit. Well, by about $500,000. They're all making about $5. What does Twilight end up at? Twilight, which is not a movie and I remember, it ends up at, come on, the numbers, 15 mil. Okay, so Labowski kicked its ass.

Number four at the box office, another kind of forgotten movie is like a erotic thriller about like, I mean, I've seen it. I saw it like on VHS as a late years ago. You know, Lady Mary's, there's like a mean mom. Lady marries a guy and the mom is bad. The mother-in-law?

Yeah. Yeah, mother-in-law. It's an erotic thriller with an evil mother-in-law? Either evil mom and the female leads are like an established Oscar-winning actress and like an up-and-coming about to win an Oscar winning actors. I don't know if you'll know this movie. So it's like three big stars. It's the new husband. No, the husband is a guy who never.

The husband's like a Billy Campbell or something? I mean, I feel bad saying that, but yeah. Is it Billy Campbell? No. No. Here's how I know when it's a Billy Campbell movie. David goes, the star of this, you're never going to guess it. And I go, it's a Billy Campbell movie.

The third lead in this, it's someone you're never going to guess. That was the rocket. It's a Billy Campbell. Okay. Okay. The actress is, she's going to win an Oscar. She wins an Oscar for a movie this year. It's not Gwyneth.

It is Gwyneth Paltrow. It's a Gwyneth, mean mother-in-law, erotic thriller? People just don't remember this. I don't know this movie at all. Is it a perfect murder? It's called. No. No, that's like...

Right, that's Michael Douglas and... That's like a dial-in from murder. Yeah, what is this movie? Movies called Hush. Oh, yeah, I've heard of that. There's another movie, also another movie called Hush, I think. There's a good movie. Flanagan.

Right? Which confusions the marriage on that. Fux up the S. Jessica Lange is the me mom. Yeah. And God bless this man, Jonathan Shake, the guy from that thing you'll do. Jonathan Schee. Ski.

I think it's pronounced. Rechke. It's Jonathan Excuse me That's when Hollywood finally was like Junk this guy It's his fucking name Like I

The guy had a totally good career I don't mean to shit Was married to Christina Applegate Nice work if you can get it Yeah She was almost Christina She thought about it She thought about

To I go Sheck apple shak Christina shake Or right yeah Hyphenate maybe Applegate's K Number six is Big Lobowski

Number seven is Goodwill Hunt which is also hanging out. What's it up to at this? 103. Wow. And it gets to 1.3? I don't know.

See, that's fucking crazy. Yes. It's fucking March. Yeah. It got to 140. That would never happen in a hundred million years. And like came on September. No.

I mean, what would have happened by now in like this year is a goodwill hunting would have been like released for free to your phone without you even asking. Exactly. Forget VOD. They would have just been like, oh my God. Just put it on TikTok. Like the modern version of this. 180 videos.

The modern version of this is Goodwill Hunting comes out in four theaters in September. Yeah, right. And by March at the time of the Academy Awards, there's already three spin-off streaming series. Yeah, exactly. And the show has been directly loaded onto your brain since the day after it came out. Number eight along the same lines as James L. Brooks is as good as it gets. A very good movie in my opinion. Best picture that here.

What is nominated? It lost to Titanic. Oh, but did he or Jack one? He was. He was. Jack one and Helen Hunt? And Helen Hill. Yeah.

Do you think that movie is as good as it gets? I do. You think it's actually as good as movies. Great Times, Noodle Salad. Okay. Number nine is Dark City, very underrated movie. It's a huge bomb, but a good movie. Is that Alexander...

Alex Proyce. The Crowe guy. Yes. I like that movie. That movie rules. That was sort of like a pre-Matrix Matrix. Yeah, a little bit. They reuse a lot of the sets, I think.

A lot of the rooftops because they also shot in Australia. Oh, that's funny. I think the opening, like, Trinity Chase in the... He's a dark city set. It's mostly dark city sets. It's amazing. Really good recent 4K release. Yeah, I like that movie.

And the number 10. Memphis Sewell? Yeah. Hottie. Jennifer Connolly. Yeah. I've seen him on the stage. He's a honey.

Number 10 is at the borrower, speaking of John Goodman. Oh. Kids movie. Yeah. But that must be a couple weeks in. Or did this bomb really fucking hard. Four weeks in. And number 11, we got to shout it out, Krippendorf's tribe.

Anytime I ever see Krippendorf's tribe on a Walt Disney released that, man. That's the. Richard Dreyf is inventing a tribe. Pretends he was found his tribe. I did this trilogy. Disney was like, yes. Mr. Holland's opus, Crippendorf's tribe. Different trilogy.

Really? That's not the same trilogy. I had a head cold at some point last fall and I was like, I need like some syllabus. Jungle to jungle. Jungle to jungle. Crippendors tribe. It's three Disney live action family comedies that reappropriate tribal and the jungle.

And the air up there. You know what? That's a good one. That would have been a good one. My third one was Man of the House. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is the Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Kevin Chase movie that is all about their like scouts. Yes.

But it's deep into the lore of what there. It's, the duology is really strong. And man, the house, I'm kind of. I get it. I think air up there is a solid one, though. I think it's a good movie. It's pretty good. I don't think it's just kind of dramatic.

Like, the thing about air up there is like, oh, it's funny. It's a tone that doesn't exist anymore is what's funny. Is that a Shelt? No, or an Underwood? Is it an Underwood? It might be an Underwood. It's not, no, directed by Paul Michael Glazer of Starsky and Hutch. And The Running Man.

Yeah. There's these tone movies that just don't exist anymore where you're like, they're not really funny, they're not really dramatic. They're sort of like somewhere in the middle. They cost like $20 million. And then in 1998, they make $200 million. Also, just like walking through the video store as a child and seeing that box and being like, here's all I need to know.

Kevin Bacon, not a comedy star starring in something that's seemingly a comedy where he's up against a really tall African man and a basketball hoop I saw that shit in theaters. I think I know what this is. He gets circumcised in it. It's the only thing I remember.

I saw it on a double feature with Airborne. What is Airborne? The rollerblading movie? Well, you guys don't know Airborne? That Airborne screams fucking balcony movie or whatever. Porchville. Do you know Airborne, Ben? Yeah, here it is.

Yeah, this is kind of in like the three ninjas. Oh, yeah. Jack Black. I wouldn't quite put it in three ninjas I put in its own genre that I also love. I'd say it's like kids beating up adults. Yes, you're right. That is part of like homo, like the kids beating up adults genre. Now is your time.

Yeah. Kids get one over on it on the grown-up adult genre. Right. Kids setting traps for adults. I'd say that is that genre. Directed by Rob Bowman who does X-Fite Fight the Future. Jack Black's in it. Seth Green's.

Edie McClurg? Yeah. And the star of it, I don't think ever went on doing anything. Shane McDermott. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seth Green is second build.

Wow. Yeah, you don't want Wikipedia to not even have a link to your name, but that is true. I think I saw the air up there and airborne. Or no, maybe I'm thinking

of cool runnings, which is another sort of that's a Disney question. It's more respectful than the three I listed. This is a classic, the thing you love Sims. Airborne has three

taglines. Oh, I love it when a poster can't decide what to tell you The poster is young guy and girl canoodling, right? And then above them are three inline skaters all the shredding air, right, in front of like a blue, like, white cloud background. Wow, the tagline is... Tagline one is Mitchell became the most popular guy on Earth, dot, dot, dot, once he took to the sky.

And once in sky are in a different font and a different color. Then second tagline... That's not what happens in the movie. I'm sure not. He's not the most popular guy on Earth. At any point. The second tagline is like rainbowing. It says, man wasn't meant to fly kids were.

But it's like an arc about the canoveling head. And then the third tagline is the classic. The tagline leads into the title. Right. Heroes aren't made. They're airborne. They're hot, dot, dot. That's fucking genius.

That's actually really good. Heroes aren't made their airborne is awesome. Taglines are fun. You don't come up with the taglines, right? Like they tell you here's a tagline. You've done that? For pineapple. Put this in your pipe.

We came up with that. We came that up with that as a tag. It's funny for Superbad. Superbad had no text. Exactly. They kept pitching us bad taglines and it was one of the seasons where we just like ran out the clock on it. We're like if we just don't approve any of these,

maybe there won't be a guy. The title was like the whole thing of like your face. What if this guy got you pregnant? That was the tagline. That made sense. I got that. Yeah. Yeah.

A 40 year old version was there's always. Better late than never. Better late than never. Which is also pretty good. Yeah. Because, like, in the studio, which we should plug the studio now, and everything else. I show our listeners, I think, would not be able to lock in with,

would mean nothing to them. The Ron Howard episode is tangential, but I do think, like, it must be so awkward and you have to sit down and they're like, okay, so here's what we have. That's exactly how that goes. Posters and taglines and, like, yes. And if you hate it, you have to be like, oh, shit. Yeah, yeah, I've been there.

You pray there's something you like, so you could at least sort of be positive. I think we all like that one. Right. But no, I've come out of it. a lot of those meetings where, yeah, they, you're like, it's very bad and it's very... Start from square one. Yeah, and you're like, you have to start over, and this is not good.

Right. That happens a lot. So, yeah, the studio. And it's returning, right? We're going to get more studio. We are currently writing the second season? Okay. Fuck yeah. All right.

Platonic. Platonic season two. And sausage party, you have two. And sausage party season two. TV shows returning. One's on Amazon. Yeah. Soz party on Amazon Prime.

Amazon Creamy. Almost on Creamy. Almost on 3rd. And Platonic Season 2 is on Apple TV Plus. When did they debut or do you? I'm not, I don't, 100. What is the, I think, I think, I think,

maybe Sautonic aired a couple days ago, August 6th, I think. Yeah, it just came back. Right. Absolutely. Yes. Right. At the time this is out, maybe they'll both.

No, but let's just out in a couple weeks. Yeah. It's all still available. Yep. It's all in the soup. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah.

I don't know. Like, what's the Seth Rogen movie we should plug that nobody has seen enough? The Giltrip. I push the guilt trip. Take this wall so much. Take this one. It's really good. That's a good movie.

Sarah Polly is very few people have seen that movie. That movie rocks. I love that movie. But Guiltrip like as a Griffin, I will say he's not putting you up. He loves that movie. I haven't watched it since it came out. I think it's really good.

It might be. Maybe you've told that story about reading the script and made you cry and being like, I guess I got to do this. Yes. And then I, and then making the film there was a little more conflicted. I think it's still good. And it got to me emotionally. Yeah, well, it is.

I mean, Dan Fogelman wrote it, who is like an objectively talented writer. And I think there was a few, there's a few plot twists and turns in the movie that I would also say are like objectively effective. Like, he's good at those. Yes, he is good at them. But I think the movie itself, I think,

maybe was not ultimately as good as it could have been, in my opinion. Maybe it's not as good as it. But it's really fun for me. But like, I got to sit in a car with Barbara Streisand all day. She's so good in it. She's amazing. And she never fucking does movie. She doesn't do movies anymore, and I got to just be like, what was JFK like?

Tell me stories about that. You ever meet Elvis? Tell me what he was like. Like, it was great. And I would just do that all fucking day. Like, it was, it was wonderful. Yeah. Man, I just saw that.

There's this interview with Mariah Carey with like, you're going to go to space like Katie Perry. And she's like, you went to space? Yeah, I saw that. And they're like, yeah, she went to space. You're going to do this? She's like, I've done it now. That's why I imagine Streisand is. She's like, yeah, that was cool.

I don't know. I've done a lot of stuff. She's done a lot of... We'll plug guilt trip and take this waltz. Yeah, and everything. Teenage Muti Turtle recently. We covered that on Patreon. That movie.

Good movie. Ben kind of swears by the church of Bebop and Rochstay. I don't know if you know this, but David has young twins, and I have taken to codenaming them Bebop. Oh, that's funny. And Rock Study, and I gave them Bebop and Rock State toys for their birth. Oh, nice. We're also working on a sequel to that. Very excited for that.

Coming along very well, I think. Yeah. And Helen, he participated in our... Kellynette and Woodrow White, who were... two of the big designers on the movie. They did an amazing job. Yeah, they participated in our art show. Oh, that's cool.

Yeah, they did a painting of Ben as the bunny kid from Gummo. Oh, that's amazing. That I got for Ben's birthday. Kellynne did that. It was very nice. That's a fun movie. Do kids know gummo? They need to know gummo.

I'm trying to do as much as I can. Can we rescind all your plugs for your own projects and just devote the plug to go out. I'm more than happy to. If you're under the age of 25, the plug is watch gum. It's like, I mean, it's funny because it just be, like, it was a wild time in movies. Yeah.

Like, and, and there wasn't so many movies that these things went under your radar. Like, if you were, if you were clued into movies, I remember at this time feeling like no movie came out, I was unaware. I could like, like, I never went to the video store. Right. And saw a movie. I'd never heard of. And, like, Big Lebowski wasn't a 24 movie. It was a failed attempt to make a mainstream crossover for comedy.

All of these streamers who, you know, in. employ Seth sometimes so we love them but you know they like actively keep those movies from you because they're like no come on you want one of these 40 movies yeah you want to get electric yeah yeah yeah all right come on let's be done thank you for being here

my pleasure this was great Seth I'm thank you so much for doing this podcast you're very silly of you it's very happy to do this okay Ben thank you for the white Russians they be hitting yeah they did hit they're perfect they were wonderful they were well made to be just a good 1 p.m. white Russian yeah it's perfect and I'm going to go back to my

family. Yeah, exactly. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate review and subscribe. Tune in next week for O'Brother. Yeah, right. That's their follow-up. Yeah.

It is a bit of a gap for them. Not two years. Okay. Felt well. Great movie. Yeah. Our friend Emily St. James returned to the show. Yep.

And as always, Seth, not to put you on the spot, but with this moment, this opportunity, is there anything you want to say? Perhaps any apologies you want to make to young Sammy Fable. Sorry. Sorry for what I did. to your family? You bought him a nice camera. I apologize.

I should never have heard of that. Blank Check with Griffin and David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Sims. Our executive producer is me, Ben Hossley. Our creative producer is Marie Barty Salinas, and our associate producer is A.J. McKeon. This show is mixed and edited by A.J. McKean and Alan Smithy. Research by J.J. Birch. Our theme song is by Lane Montgomery in the Great American Novel, with additional music by Alex Mitchell. Artwork by Joe Bowen, Ollie Moss, and Pat Reynolds.

Our production assistant is Minnick. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production help. Head over to Blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit. Join our Patreon, Blankcheck Special Features, for exclusive. franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social at Blank CheckPod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter,

Checkbook on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by Blank Check Productions. Way out west. Nope. Nope. No. Way out west.

Let's see. Just won't take another look at you. I got a Jackson main my way into this. I like your style. I like your style, dude. But then I feel like, What am I getting? I'm getting into something else here. Like your style, dude.

I'm now restrategizing based on how short an amount of time I think I can sustain this voice. Okay.